Sector Five
by FlairForTheVeil
Summary: Of a war-torn world of the five Sectors, Naruto finds himself deserted with no memory of his fellow survivors. Discovered by a new group, he struggles to understand a world filthy with bandits, government drones, and killing at the slightest threat. But in a world like this, friends are rare and betrayal is but an expectation. AU Survival. NaruSasu.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

_ He was running. He couldn't remember now who – or what – he was running from, but damn if it wasn't the sprint of his short life. His boots pummeled against the newly wet pavement, both slower and faster than the tempo of gunshots starting to fade behind him as he rounded up a corner and skidded into a hopefully empty alley. _

_ He could hear the haunting shrieks and yells of the last few remaining members of his group, his last hopes, his last friends, and quite possibly his last sight. They were telling him to save himself since he was the youngest of the group, but in their harsh bellows, he heard pleas to stay and fight them off and continue living off the streets. A horrid life._

_ He heard the mechanical whirs and beeps just on his heels and his heart beat against his chest even faster than it had before, begging to get out and save itself as to dying a dishonorable death. His breath was a harsh wheezing and he ignored the spittle fleeing his mouth and his sight was blurred and stinging with sweat, his skin was clammy and burning at the same time and his smell was of gasoline and soiled streets, rotting bodies and the nauseating scent of blood. _

_ Perhaps his own._

_ He risked a glance back and nearly curled his toes in terror as a damaged Katon zeroed its dull, blue, electrical eyes that were an imitation of his own in on his face and he quickly whipped his head back around to the fire escape a few yards in front of him, not wanting it to identify him. _

_ His own footsteps and the steel legs tickling the concrete of his _buddy_ Katon were the only things that he could hear. Fuck, the fire escape was only about forty feet away from him now, so if he could shoot the damn thing before it-_

_ He heard the cocking of the damn thing's blaster and leapt onto the fire escape latter, hoping to at least elope to the roof of the two story building and kill the thing from there. He snatched his gun from its place snuggled in his belt loop, struggling up the bars of the ladder so fast that his combats got stuck in them. He was beginning to get dizzy from his exertion as he climbed higher and higher, balancing his gun with two fingers in his right hand on top of the sidebar of the ladder. He heard _it_ changing directions and fixing to climb up the wall as he reached the roof of the bulding and desperately groped for a ledge, dead body, something to grab onto and hoist himself up. He did just so and flipped the safety off and aimed where he last remembered the thing being, preparing to pull the trigger as the first traces of a smirk graced his sweaty face-_

_ Something shoved him back a good ten feet, halfway across the roof. His jaw went slack in wonder and his pupils dilated while his brain turned to jam. All he could hear was a thick, heavy buzz. A buzz like the echo of hitting metal against metal. Pain. Severe pain. Hazily, he thought it was the worst he'd experienced. Was that his head? His vision doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and his head spun in a million different directions, his unfocused eyes trying to focus on the kaleidoscope of red bricks in front of him as rain started to pour down again._

_ Warm blood on the left side of his neck as he got over the first wave of shock and pain and unsteadily faced the Katon charging up another bullet. He stumbled back a few more steps and tried to aim at the three white, spinning forms of the robot-_

_ Another gunshot was heard and all was silent except for the rain. Was that his own? He felt another gush of warm blood, this time funning father down his shoulder and broad chest. Yeah, it was. He lifted his index finger off the trigger of his cheap ol' Browning, letting the corners of his mouth turn up into a sleazy grin. _

_ He stumbled back a few more steps as his adrenaline wiped itself from his system, a second, much more powerful wave of pain engulfing him and making him hoarsely yell and clutch at his head._

_ Oh, fuck, no – that felt worse than before – and he yelped and doubled over when he noticed that he was only hearing rain and his own breathing out of his right ear and clenched his fists between his thighs and the throbbing of his left ear wouldn't fade in any sort of way._

_ Help. Please, anybody. He needed help. But where to get it? His group was dead. They were all dead. Killed because they sacrificed themselves for him, so he could live a longer life in this shit world. _

_ The branch group. He couldn't remember much right now, but he pictured a blonde ponytail and a huge white dog as he stumbled back to his feet, losing himself in a few more steps back. Where were they? What was it called? W…_

_ His train of thought completely vanished as he gasped in pain and threw himself backwards to lean against the brick wall on the opposite side of the roof, finally resting._

_ Resting? He wasn't resting. It sure did feel like he was falling. Why would he be falling that far against a wall that was a few feet away…?_

_ Was there even a wall?_

I guess this is why they called me an idiot so often, _he thought, flailing his arms around him for the cement roof he was once on._

_ But his hands never met the cement roof or the brick wall of a neighboring building. They met nothing, air, raindrops in his sweaty palms as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he opened his mouth to turn to his friend to ask what was going on. Where was he?_

_ Everything went black as his hands finally met gravel, skin being torn open by it, but not the one that covered roofs._


	2. Far From Home

Chapter 1: Far From Home

The first thing he felt was the frigid winter air on his bare stomach and face.

Cold.

There was a throbbing pain in his head and left side of his body, but it was dull, yet blunt enough to be qualified as discomfort. His back was sore and stinging and he could tell that he was lying on street gravel. What was he doing there?

There was a buzzing, ringing in his left and he tried to wrench open his eyes. They were crossed and burning as the pale violet of the winter sunrise assaulted them. Where was he?

What happened?

He tried to remember what happened, honestly, he did. But all he could conjure was a glimpse of red and white hair, waves of endless sand, strange symbols, an angry female voice cussing him out and a twiddling index finger and thumb.

He registered yelling and the pang of metal against metal, skin against steel, robot against human. His eyes squinted shut at some deep girlish giggling and a gurgled growl of "Put that the fuck away, Hatake!"

_What that hell is going on?_

More gunshots and shouts of anger and pain, something about pills and medical supplies and looting the convenience store across the street-

_I need to get home, I need to get home,_ he tried to sit up and only got so far as a few inches before he stilled as he realized something.

_I don't know where home is._

He gasped loudly at the new pain that showered over his whole body, working his jaw and immediately uncurling his fists as soon as he tried to clench them. He opened his eyes completely and looked down at his bloody tan fist in which there was a black handgun-

_Where am I?_

_Who am I?_

He grunted in pain as his violent thoughts triggered a worse pounding in his head, slumping down from his tense position as exhaustion nearly possessed him.

The last thing he heard was feather-light footsteps against wet dirt and calm breathing. The last thing he saw was a black head, _was that a fucking pantyhose?_, and haunting, questioning dark eyes.

He startled awake again as he discovered there was a crackling of a fire right in his ear and nearly singing his hair.

He tried to gasp but only ended up exhaling heavily and nearly gagging in pain as his movements and breathing were restricted, his thoughts slowing as something tight was around his head and what seemed like a pillow was on his left ear.

He winced and pried his eyes open to look straight into a bonfire a few feet away from him, glowing ashes rising into the air and dissolving just short of his plane of vision. He could see green grass and many trees around him, various items strewn around such as books, empty pill bottles, an odd looking Velcro sandal and used medical supplies.

His eyes tried to strain in the direction that there was yelling coming from, but unfortunately, it was coming from behind him. The voices were similar and seemed to be fighting, both deep and powerful and dark. There were a few more extra voices, one female and screeching at a voice which was nasally and another one that was calm and calculating and discussing something with yet another deep, calm voice. What the actual hell was going on?

He cringed at an animalistic growl from the deeper of the two. "What the _hell_ were you thinking, you asswipe? Why the fuck do you pick a random kid off the street when we barely have any supplies to go around for your own dumbass condition? How the fuck do you know he's not a spy from One, a bandit from Three or a fucking religious sacrificial freak from sector Four? What makes you think that I'll _allow_ him to-"

"Shut the hell up, Itachi! I already identified him and he's from Five-"

"Five? _Five? _What the hell is he doing on the streets then? He's probably a criminal, an exile! Banned by our own blood! I thought I raised you a whole hell of a lot better than this, Sasuke, and this has _got_ to be one of the worst decisions you've ever made. You were injured yourself, for Kami's sake-"

"Just because he was on the streets from Five doesn't mean jack shit. You know hell as well as the others that it was overpopulated and had to let go of some of its military- _military, _Itachi, he's a _soldier_-"

"What, do you think he's going to save us all or-"

"And by the way, that wasn't my own fucking blood, that was his. The only injury I got was a bruise from the damn Katon-"

"Would you stop fucking interrupting me? You're the one who needs to get-"

"No, stop interrupting _me! _You're not letting me explain just how-"

"What? Not letting you explain what? How you think he's going to be the damn hero of the fucking group, when you can barely cover your own ass? He's _injured, _Sasuke, and he has not a single damn benefit to any of us-"

"He's an O negative."

There was an immediate hush that fell over the arguing voices around him, and a few gasps as well.

The female voice was wavering and uncertain, "Are you… serious? Are you sure? There's only nine left, isn't there?"

The deep voice that stated a blood type answered her. "No. He's assumedly the only one left since I only found seven bodies back there."

"Show me his identification, I can check for sure, Sasuke. Don't get too excited."

There was a grumble and a bit of rustling and a click, a beep as an Identification Card was projected into the air in front of them. Kakashi hummed in delight and squinted his mismatched eyes at the high-ranking military status on the sector Five card, chortling a bit. "Not so useless now, is he, Ita-chan?"

There was a frustrated sigh and a grumble of how he could easily die.

Karin dragged the hologram closer to the guy's body by the fire and kneeled behind him. He was facing away from them so they wouldn't need to worry about him, with his body covered in bandages and all. She gently laid a hand on his firm abdomen and flipped him over-

And screamed when she saw shockingly bright blue eyes open and staring at her.

There was a flurry of footsteps and "The fuck's up with you?" and a few more curse words thrown around as the rosy haired girl composed herself. There was a metal clang of a sword imbedding in moist soil and a few light chuckles.

"Nothing, I just didn't expect him to be awake." She sighed breathily and completely turned the blond haired boy on his back, gently checking his pulses and patting his cheeks to warm his face. "How are you feeling…" she turned to the flickering and buzzing hologram beside her, "… Naruto?"

_Naruto._

_Naruto? _

Said boy slowly blinked up at her thickly rimmed black glasses and saw his own reflection in them.

Yellow. Shocking blond. Was he really that blond? He could see cerulean irises in her slightly foggy lenses. Were those scars or birthmarks, those kitty-looking whiskers on his face? He tried to open in mouth but only winced and groaned in pain.

Karin turned to a solemn looking Juugo and asked him to fetch painkillers and a few pillows and blankets. She ignored Itachi's feral growl, quite well aware of just how much the dark-haired man held a disliking from the kind looking blond in front of her.

She mustered up a gentle smile and caressed his forehead for the signs of a fever. "I'm Karin, the medic of this group. You must be in a lot of pain because you have a severe concussion, four broken ribs, and a dislocated knee. The reason you have such a severe concussion is because-" she touched the heavy bandages on his left ear- "you were shot here and I'm pretty sure you fell off of the top of a restaurant. I found a dead Katon on the roof, so you must have fought him off, didn't you? I removed the broken glass and gravel from your back and your hands. You shouldn't have any infections. I had Juugo realign your knee so you should be walking well enough by now. You're lucky that your ribs didn't pierce your lungs or any of your other organs. Sit up."

Naruto tried to process the information being poured on him as he was dragged by his arms to sit up on thick pillows and bundled in wool blankets. Karin crouched in front of him and asked him to tell them the last thing he could remember but his throat was too dry and his lungs too weak.

He looked up from the slightly cracked cup he was given with a small amount of clean looking water in it and observed the people in front of him. Karin was a relatively petite girl, with pretty long red hair and a pale complexion. Her hair made something in the back of his mind itch, but for now, he couldn't remember a thing. There was a humongous looking boy with mangled orange hair and a blue jumpsuit, who introduced himself as Juugo. The next boy, Suigetsu, was much smaller with malnourished white hair and creepy looking teeth that glinted when he mischievously smirked. A tall man that seemed friendly enough named Kakashi smiled at him though his strange spandex-looking mask that covered the lower half of his face and slightly creeped Naruto out with the perverted thoughts swirling around in his mismatched eyes. His eyes roved over to a man that Kakashi had to name Itachi through his unwelcoming aura, pale and tall with a silky dark brown ponytail brought to the front of his shoulder that reached his elbows. Naruto made a mental note to steer the fuck clear of the dude as his tired looking eyes were nearly shut from glaring at him so fiercely.

Next to Itachi stood a boy who looked like a near mirror image of him. _Brothers, _Naruto thought. He stood in a friendlier stance and was a few inches shorter than his elder brother. Sasuke, who was painfully handsome, had hair that was so black it was nearly blue and skin paler than he had ever seen. Bangs framed a defined jaw and matched almond shaped pitch black eyes that looked miles deep. _Sasuke, _Naruto rolled the name around once again in his mind and tore his eyes away from the boy.

He cleared his throat and spoke for the first time. "Why am I here?"

Even the lingering Itachi froze as those words escaped his lips. Kakashi visibly frowned and turned to Karin. She answered the unspoken questions as she already expected this to happen.

"It's only reasonable that he has amnesia. He fell two stories and I don't even know how he lived. Whether it's permanent or temporary, I can't tell, but if we got to a hospital then I could charge up an MRI scan for brain damage and tell you guys."

She turned from the group to Naruto and asked him, "Do you remember anything at all, even if they're little things like colors or what happened to you before this? If you tell me, I may be able to help you."

The boy named Suigetsu shifted his weight to one foot and shoved his hands in his pockets. "He's already pretty fucked, Karin, so I don't see the-"  
"Shut the hell up, Suigetsu!" Karin was suddenly in the white haired boy's face. "I'm gonna strangle y-"

"Woah," Naruto interjected, making a face at Karin's mood swing. He held his tan hands up and glanced at how tan they were. Like honey. "I do remember a few things, and-"

"What?" Karin was suddenly right in front of him again and her scarlet eyes were wide behind her glasses. "Everything. You have to tell us everything."

"Well, it's only a little bit, seriously," Naruto grumbled and pushed himself up a bit against the pillows that supported his back. "Geez."

He could feel everybody around him staring at him and for once he dreaded the feeling of all the attention on him. "I remember… the ground. And red hair, like yours, Karin. And long blonde hair. A big white dog. I remember running-" 

"From what?" Itachi glided a few feet closer to Naruto. "Katons? Guards? Tw-"

"Shut up, Itachi." Sasuke appeared next to his brother and kicked the back of his knee with a thin black boot. "Cut that shit out."

Kakashi held up an orange book and slightly turned away from the rest of the group. "I think that's enough fighting for tonight, don't you think, Sasuke, Itachi?" The tall man scuffed his shoe in front of the small fire that they had built.

Naruto caught a glimpse of the sign on the front of the book and suddenly remembered a flash of white hair and, for some reason, warts. "Hey!" He accidentally called, his gaze fixed on the book. "Let me see that."  
Kakashi turned to him and slightly grinned. "Well, Naruto-kun. Do you see this sign on the front? It means no readers under eighteen." He giggled behind his hand. "Your ID says that you're not seventeen yet.

Naruto puffed his cheeks out and scowled a bit. "Not like that, you damn geezer. It reminds me of something!"

Itachi and Kakashi shared a look and the book was thrown in his lap. Naruto picked up the well-worn book and opened the cover. _Icha Icha Paradise. _He frowned at a busty looking woman and an overly buff man giving each other intense looks as he flipped to the index and publisher information.

_Jiraiya Sannin. _

"Old pervert?" Naruto whined, memories of Jiraiya giving him sleazy grins and asking him to proofread his dirty novels surfacing in his mind. A particularly fond memory of the damn pervert shoving a toad down the front of his pants and himself screaming at the top of his lungs and running around a fire made his scowl melt off his face and a soft smile replace it. "I knew Jiraiya," Naruto murmured, looking up at Kakashi.

The scarecrow smiled down at his long time friend's pupil. "Maa, how could I forget a brat like you?" He gently patted Naruto's bright tufts of hair. Itachi scoffed somewhere in the background. "He's a goodie. Probably traveled with Jiraiya and the lot as a group. Do you remember a blonde woman, Naruto?"  
The blond nodded an affirmative and before he could ask any more questions Kakashi clasped his hands together and rested them on his cheek, turning to Itachi and giving him a dazzling smile. "We're keeping him. Let's just help him recuperate and I'm sure we can find our way back to shelter."

Itachi didn't answer but turned and stalked to a small tent that was deeper in the woods.

Kakashi grabbed the hologram that Karin had left on and showed Naruto his ID.

Staring back at Naruto was himself. Sector Five, Konoha…

"Military?" Naruto wondered, eyes squinting at the term next to it.

"You were of a very high rank before you were excused, which is surprising for kids, Naruto. It's a wonder how you were a Jounin at age twelve."

Naruto couldn't help but let his ego swell somewhere inside him as Kakashi continued to read him information that came from the card.

"Blood type O negative. Do you remember what happened before all of this, Naruto? Not before coming here, but how you were excused as well as many other military members. The Five Sectors, is what I mean. Their downfall."

Naruto shook his head as he felt that that information was important somewhere in the back of his mind. _Home, _a frantic voice wheezed in the back of his mind.

There was a shared look between the remaining members of the group and tension became thick as a wire to pluck in the air.

"So you lot are going to make me do all the talking, eh? Baa. I just wanted to read." Kakashi sat down next to him and noticed that the blond boy was maybe only an inch shorter than his own five foot eleven, given that he stood up soon. Sasuke also settled down in front of Naruto, as did Karin and Juugo. Suigetsu grumbled something along the lines of "Fuck this shit" and "Ya'll are crazy fuckers" and slinked off into the woods.

"Ten years ago…"


	3. The Past and A New Beginning

Chapter 2: The Past and A New Beginning

* * *

_Ten years ago was the time that the Nation lived in perfect peace and harmony. The Nations took only about thirty percent of the open space of the world, the rest left unexplored for the fear of the unknown. A peace treaty arranged in the land was followed cleanly, not even a hint of rebellious or violent activity in any of the land. Strong military divisions and trading companies were formed, schools were established separately for those who wished to be a part of the military and those who wished to take on a career such as a medic or a teacher. Large clans commuted through the expanse very often to spread their blood and peaceful word and not a single soul in the Nation was troubled._

_In the Nation only, that is._

_It was when a group known as the Elders came upon the Nation from an unexplored area of the world. They proposed to the citizens that if they each nominated a member to lead a divided piece of land from the five of their group, they could be stronger and soon populate the whole world with their dark technology. The citizens never expected that they would be morning their decision._

_So successfully, the Nation was torn apart and divided into five Sectors, all of which were overpopulated._

_The citizens were ripped from their homes and families and randomly spread through whatever land that they got thrown in by the malicious robots known as Katons._

_One, which was given the title Otogakure and led by Orochimaru Sannin. It manufactured all weapons and artillery and still does to this day, whoever lives in it. One, which carried out all criminal and gangly activities, assassinations and assaults against the other Sectors and innocent citizens. _

_Two, which was given the title Sunagakure and dictated by Homura Mitokado. Two manufactured most goods and furniture and some landscaping supplies such as cement and sand. Its people were friendly and lucky._

_Three, Kirigakure. Kotaru Utatane. Three had absolutely no beneficial goods to the rest of the Sectors and its people were known for being unstable and rash._

_Four. Iwagakure was the worst of them all, torn from its roots by a psychotic Tobirama Senju. It was the brawl between Senju and Five that had the world crumbling even further than it already was. _

_Five, Konohagakure, a green land with plentiful resources and peaceful souls tortured by the Danzo Shimura. Its military was the strongest and largest, and it was a well-known fact that it was the landscape to live in and that it was overpopulated to over twice its capacity. _

_So the Elders, despite their differences and disagreements, decided to do something about that._

_They ripped ten percent of the military from each Sector and jammed them into flying contraptions that sent them to the opposite sides of the world. If they were strong and worthy enough, they would return alive. They slaughtered forty percent of citizens and burned their bodies and abandoned another twenty percent of citizens with the military. Left behind were only the powerful adolescents and strongest military members, children and senior citizens' ashes flying away with the wind. Most people who were disposed of in the wild died. All people who are in the wild and open are now wanted dead. Those strongest ones are still living, like survival groups here today. It is every man for himself, in a sense, and a group will only slow you down but you travel with one for the sake of company. There are bandit groups who use their women to lure men away from their camps and loot their supplies. There are spy groups from sector One who eliminate all humans they come across, and update hunter Katon bots scout the open land and incinerate every living thing it comes across. Now there are actual military groups that come from the Sectors to eliminate us with greater accuracy. _

_Sector Three used to be known as a refugee camp but it was discovered by a stray Katon and completely destroyed about two years ago. The word today is that abandoned military checkpoints are the place to be and left unsearched for a bug in the system that reports that they still have legal inhabitants. Of course, Five is an abandoned no-man's land, but it is too great of a risk to travel to it._

_One of those few military checkpoints is our only hope. If they are overrun by Sector officials, it's over. Completely and one hundred percent over. There is no more hope in this world except for the fact that you may find a recently expired can of beans in the middle of the road and loot it fast enough that a Katon doesn't shoot your ass. But if we can start some sort of new civilization, a new world, maybe even a new Nation, then there is hope. It would be an incredibly long shot, but it's worth it in this fucked up world, is it not?_

* * *

Naruto pursed his lips at the seemingly new information Kakashi relayed to him a few hours ago, weakly chewing a piece of beef jerky.

After the man had said the name Danzo, a man with a disapproving voice and bandages covering most of his face fluttered through his thoughts so fast he wasn't sure if he even remembered it. But, he remembered being the mere age of six in Konoha with the blurry faces of what looked like his friends. He recalled the word _academy _and gun marches and combat.

Naruto wanted to help these people. God, he wanted to help Kakashi who smiled even though he was in severe pain, who was friends with the old pervert. He wanted to help the bright Karin since he could just _tell _that she had such a bright future with her advanced medical knowledge and hunting skills. She was sharp and pretty and caring, fierce and burdened all at the same time. He wanted to help Juugo because the guy was in too much mental pain to speak but even a few words. He wanted to help Suigetsu because even though the boy fooled around and teased Karin into the dirt, he saw how the white haired boy would detachedly stare off at a certain point in the distance and heard the blandness in his insulting words sometimes. He wanted to help Itachi because he could tell all the harsh man wanted to do was protect his brother, and he knew absolutely nothing about the silent Sasuke.

_Sasuke._

Naruto looked up from the fire and across at Karin who was loudly snoring into a medical book about contagious diseases. The blonde smiled and looked beside him to where Sasuke had dozed off. His pink lips slightly fluttered in a word spoken in his dreams Naruto couldn't read. His neck was smooth and his stomach was flat and his figure was obviously well sculpted. Sasuke had long legs, was clad in dark clothes and had porcelain white skin with startling blue veins visible on the inside of his wrists. Naruto peeked at them a bit closer, noticing that they were _seriously_ blue and that the inside of his hands were just about stark white. He brushed his hand against his and his eyes widened at how cold they were. Kami, was Sasuke a bloodsucker or some shit?

Naruto shrugged off one of the three blankets Juugo had set atop him and draped it over Sasuke, pulling it up to under the boy's chin and getting onto his hands and knees.

He bit his lip as he sat on his haunches, his torn back quivering and maybe not really ready to support his body weight, but he wanted to stretch anyway. Karin gave a violent snore and slumped back on the log behind her. He chuckled before he painfully rose into a crouch and tried not to gasp when two of his ribs tangled together, standing up straight with a nasty wince on his face and his eyes burning. _Damn, damn, damn, that hurts!_

The blondbreathed slowly and looked down at the thick socks on his feet. He scrunched his nose as he noticed that his Timberlands had seemed to keep running away from Katons on their own and that his guns and shivs were missing from the pockets of his cargo pants and his flak jacket was nowhere to be seen. Naruto whined at the cold and wandered into the direction of the forest that everyone else had gone, faint light visible from the many tree branches.

He slowly maneuvered over stray pebbles and another strange Velcro sandal was randomly placed again. He picked it up and looked at the well-worn sole by thin toes and a highly arched foot and checked the size – eight and a half. It was presumably one of the guys', since Karin surely didn't wear nine and a half in women's sizes because she was a petite girl. He snickered as he thought of her wearing a large shoe size, waving it at a terrified Suigetsu who begged her not to smash him with it.

He kept the sandal in his hand and stepped in rhythm to Karin's snores towards the florescent light he could see just about ten feet in front of him. He curiously stepped into an opening that had a bright battery powered lantern in the center that was surrounded by five large tents and looked around for a familiar face- preferably Juugo or even Kakashi- and he was slammed against an oak tree. The little breath Naruto held wheezed from his mouth and his ribs cramped painfully before he was met with the mad eyes of one rabid looking Itachi. The man had sticks and leaves in his loose hair and his eyes were wide in rage as he squeezed Naruto's esophagus.

"_Why do you have Sasuke's shoe?"_ Was hotly rasped into his ear and Naruto tried to cringe away from the taller man and drag air back into his lungs. His arms flailed with the sandal still in his hand he tried to kick the man away when Itachi was ripped from him and his wrists held back by Kakashi, whose eyes were squinted in a smile.

"Resorting to violence, are we, Itachi?" Kakashi chuckled. Years of holding his temper and he had no trouble whatsoever containing the brunet. Itachi growled and fixed his eyes that nearly shone red in the moonlight on Naruto and spit again, "_Why do you have my brother's shoe?"_

Naruto held up the sandal, glanced at it, looked at Itachi, and looked back at the shoe. "Eh… I found it on the ground on the way here? The other one's by the fire?" He tried to smile at Itachi, but it only turned into a nervous grimace as Kakashi laughed and let the man's wrists go. Itachi stalked so fast towards Naruto that the blond swore he saw dirt flying behind him and violently snatched the sandal out of his grasp and struck him in the neck with it.

Naruto screeched and sprinted away from Itachi, screaming that he hadn't done anything wrong. He yelled for somebody, _anybody _to help him, screamed Juugo's name and ran into one of the tents to unexpectedly stomp on Suigetsu's stomach, who doubled up in pain and bellowed into Naruto's knee and punched Juugo in the chest, who roared and rose so quickly that his head ripped a whole in the top of the tent.

Kakashi's laughter could be heard echoing into the forest as Naruto cringed away from Itachi and his Death Sandal for the rest of the night.

The next morning resulted in an exclusively snappy Karin and everybody in the camp shying away from Kakashi's malicious glint in his mismatched eyes. Naruto thought he felt an apprehensive tension that everybody was displaying, but ignored it.

Naruto sat nestled in the corner farthest from Itachi and next to Suigetsu and Sasuke, picking at his ration of oatmeal. Last night Kakashi had asked him to sleep in the same tent as Sasuke, of which the matter Itachi was nearly foaming at the mouth with. Sasuke made very little (or you could call it absolutely no) conversation. The boy was obviously not a morning person as he glared at the beams of sunlight that made it through the tent's entrance flaps and rose out of his sleeping bag like a zombie, stepping all over Naruto's legs in the process.

He had just finished off his cup of stale oatmeal when Kakashi decided to open his mouth and made everybody but himself, Itachi, and Sasuke groan in distress.

"Maa, you all know what day it is," Kakashi scolded the group and stood up from his crouched position. "We can't leave without Kisame or Deidara, you hooligans."

"It's Loot Day!" Suigetsu spat at Kakashi's feet and chugged from a gallon's bottle of water.

"That it is," Kakashi replied and stuffed his hand in the pockets of his dark pants. "Every fourteen days we walk into the main road of town and loot the convenience stores for food and other supplies. Sometimes we'll be lucky enough to find a hospital and pick up medical supplies," he glanced at Karin and Sasuke. "Every thirty-one days we drive twenty miles south along the Fire River, clear the Katons and scouts within a few miles and search a certain radius for one of those checkpoints."

"Just tell us whose turn it is," Suigetsu slurred to Naruto's right and nudged him with his elbow. "Sure as hell it ain't me this time, went last time."

"Yes, that's why it's Sasuke's turn this time," Kakashi handed a few crumpled papers to the raven. "But we're sending our little Naru with him so he can get the point and main things to pick up." Sasuke scowled at the silver haired man and glared at his older brother who merely smirked at him while Karin approached Naruto. She grabbed his wrist and slipped her own paper into his rough hand. Naruto leant down a bit and she stood on the tips of her toes to whisper something in his ear, the blond nodding and slipping the paper into his pocket.

She was about to turn away when Naruto gave her a skittish poke in the middle of her back and she turned back to him, pushing her glasses farther up her nose and raising her scarlet eyebrows.

"Uh… hehe… well, do you- um… where do I find these?" He hurriedly whispered, the back of his neck slightly pink when he rubbed it with his hand.

Karin scoffed a "Figure it out, blondie!" and sunk down onto a log in front of the smoking remains of their little bonfire.

_Kami,_ Naruto thought to himself. _Why do the worst things happen to me?_

He frowned and turned to Kakashi and the pale brothers, noting how Kakashi looked sterner than usual and nodded along with what Itachi looked to be violently whispering down in his brother's face. Sasuke's arms were crossed and he scowled into the forest, not even sparing Itachi a glance as he was given the same speech for the hundredth time.

Naruto also noted that Sasuke's skin legitimately looked the color of porcelain, and probably paler than usual due to his soft black pants and long sleeved navy shirt. He had bandages weaved over his pants on top of his left hamstring and had the strange black sandals on from last night. The blond wondered why the pair was strewn randomly and could only conclude that he dropped them. They were open toed with a band around the top of his foot and encased his whole ankle and just a bit above.

He broke himself from his thoughts and strode to Kakashi, the man slightly turning to him and Itachi's voice faltering from his talking at Sasuke. "Can I at least have my shoes back?" Naruto whined at Kakashi. The man rose silver eyebrows at him. "Hmm, I forgot about them," Kakashi said and turned back to the main camp to emerge a few moments later with his beloved beat up Timberlands in hand.

Naruto bent over and jammed his right foot into one, and faltered when he stood up and saw the initials _GS _written on the tongue of the left one. Sea green eyes lined in black illuminated his mind and gazed at him like a cat. The image of the eyes backed out and minimized and his mind was filled with thin lips and a strange symbol when he registered Itachi's voice in his ear.

"_-got it?"_ the man spat in his ear, backing away and glaring at the blond.

Naruto glanced around at the faces and backs turned to him, blinking at the sun and turning to the brunet. "Huh?" He grunted.

"Dumbass." The brunet grumbled and stalked away to sit next to Juugo on a log.

He glanced right at deep obsidian eyes who were calculating him like that of an owl its prey. There was no expression on the defined and sharp features of Sasuke's face, but Naruto knew the guy was planning something in the back of his broody mind.

Kakashi shoved them both together and away from him and tossed them a few rounds of ammo. "Go now, before the scouts come out. Preserve bullets, got it?" He tossed a rifle at Sasuke who slung the strap of the gun on his shoulder and walked away from the pair, and a nearly empty gasoline tank to Naruto. The blond pouted as he realized he wasn't allowed a gun yet and pocketed the ammo for safekeeping. He wondered when he would get his own weapons and belongings back since his wallet wasn't even in his pocket and he knew he probably had some pictures of his past friends in there. The cash in it was just for comfort, papers Naruto found on the ground previously. Money didn't matter anymore. This world was about pure survival.

Sasuke turned to him and muttered a somewhat friendly "Let's go," and led him away from the camp.


	4. Looting and Losing

Chapter 3: Looting and Losing

* * *

The ground was still wet with rain and Naruto's boots sunk into it while Sasuke walked with lighter, more graceful steps, his feet not sinking into mud and just barely skimming the surface of the ground. They were walking through a clearing in the woods about a quarter mile from the main camp. It was humid and there were strange bugs flying around and making strange sounds and Naruto was just plain freaked out.

Sasuke had made no attempt to start a conversation, sending out an unspoken rule that Naruto was supposed to trudge behind him and be silent.

Well, that wasn't really working out for Naruto.

He felt that it was instinct and start a conversation because he was becoming jittery from the grave silence and scuffed his foot into a particularly nasty patch of mud.

"So," he started, speeding his steps a bit so that he was a few feet behind the raven instead of ten. "How long is it to the 'main road'?"

Sasuke slightly turned his face towards Naruto and regarded him with a solid gaze and lifted a shoulder, fixing the strap of his rifle and gripping it tighter. "About two miles from here, hour trek."

Naruto stuffed his hands in his pockets and slithered a bit closer to Sasuke, becoming excited at getting a few words out of the boy. He noticed that the raven stood about five seven or five eight. "What is the main road? And what's the point of going?"

Sasuke raised a dark eyebrow and slowed down a bit so that they were walking side by side, the trees around them becoming more scarce and dead. "You really don't remember anything, do you? Not even long term memories?"

Naruto nodded and leant his head back, looking up at the dreary stormy sky. "I remember hair colors and I think a bit of my military days, but that's about it. And a lot of the things I do feel like instinct, so I think I'm acting the same way I did… before?" He grunted at his own confusion. He really wished he could remember what kind of person he was. "Hey, I asked you what the main road was and why we're going. Don't change the subject, you sly dog."

The raven nodded and gripped Itachi's rifle a bit closer to his side, eyeing the scratched-out family crest carved into the black wood. In all honesty, the members of his camp weren't sure that they could trust the blond that Sasuke had lugged from the main street. He could be a spy, or a bandit, sending out messages to his former camp members with his stupid glazed-eyed dazes into the sun and loud snor…es. Sasuke scrunched his nose and tried to stop turning into Itachi.

"The main road is part of what Five left behind when they were destroyed by One about two years ago. There are department stores, convenience stores, schools, hospitals, gas stations left behind… supplies. When the weather changes like this, we get blankets and heavier clothing. When it gets hotter, lighter clothing and shorts for Karin. Food and water from convenience stores, first aid kits. Gun shops are untouched by bandits, so we scavenge the ammo and pick up extra guns and knives. Paper from schools for personal loot runs, educational books for leisure. The water still runs in those schools, so when we find a hospital, we take all of the camp with us and bathe in the locker rooms. When we find a hospital, we pick up medicine, advanced supplies, let Karin go nuts in it… we try to stay close enough to the road in case one of us gets severely injured and we need to go to one of them. Fill up that tank when we come across a gas station," Sasuke tilted his head down at the red can in Naruto's grasp. "Take the most important and minimal amount for travel."

Naruto nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "And those… Katons? Scouts? What do you do about them? Shoot them? Take 'em hostage?"

The raven's steps faltered a bit and he turned more of his body to Naruto, noticing pale collarbones and a bruise on the back of his hand resting on the Blaser. "We're not fucking bandits. Deactivate the Katons. Stab the scouts. Hope you don't mind gore because there's one behind us."

The blond's whole body froze and he felt the hair on his arms and the back of his neck stand up. _Who?_ Sasuke pressed ashiv into his sweaty palm and shoved him to the ground. "What? Wait- Sas-_wait!_" But it was too late; the raven had jogged to the east into a thick patch of trees and was no longer visible.

Naruto tensed up and turned a full 360, raising the clothed and battered handle of the shiv to his chest and fell into a defensive stance.

Indeed, there was another presence in the forest, closing in at an alarming rate behind him. Naruto quickly turned and sent his foot crashing into the gut of a slim man with long brown hair and pale eyes. The man was sent tumbling a few feet back but quickly righted himself, setting his palms in a strange formation and opening his mouth as if he were about to say something.

"Where were-" he panted, but was quickly silenced with a dull whoosh and the splattering of blood on the folded grass below their feet.

Naruto lamely watched as the man who made something in the back of his mind crawl and wriggle sink to the ground, a fine bullet hole in his back and obviously through his heart. Blood was seeping into his white shirt around the hole, wetting his long hair and slowly expanding to his shoulder blades.

_Am I slow or is everybody else just too fast, _Naruto thought to himself, turning around when an angry pair of footsteps made their way to him.

"What the hell were you doing?" Before the blond knew it, Sasuke was shoving his finger into his neck and robbed Naruto of his breath. He hunched over and coughed but when he tried to inhale the only thing he got was the metallic scent of blood and petrichor. His eyes watered and he stared at the raven's toned calves through his pants.

"What the hell do you mean, what am _I _doing? You're the one who shoved me as bait for that guy!" Naruto rasped and stood back up, glaring at the pale boy.

"Yes, _what were you doing_," Sasuke hissed and snatched the shiv away from Naruto's grasp. "You were _obviously _supposed to run the opposite way as me when I gave this to you." The raven glared at him and shoved the knife into his weapons belt. "Maybe you really got yourself knocked stupid."

"How the hell was I supposed to know that?" Naruto growled and tried to rival Sasuke's glare. "Maybe a 'Run!' woulda' helped, instead of shoving me to the ground and running away from me." He crossed his arms.

Sasuke broke eye contact and looked into the trees, thinning his lips and setting the R8 back onto his shoulder. "Whatever. Let's just go." He turned back to where he had shot the long haired man and prepared to take a step, but the sight was what stopped him from taking it.

There was a large pool of blood on the ground, marled from body weight and steam rising from the cold. The body was gone.

In the place where the dead man had been was a message written in his own blood:

_We're coming for you, Naruto._

* * *

Sasuke was in a noticeably worse mood when they were a visible distance away from the main road.

He was jogging in front of Naruto again, refusing to speak to the blond and too eager to get away from him.

_We need to disband soon, _the raven thought to himself. _His group has found him, and I'm sure that when they pinpoint him they'll ransack us and gut us. _

Behind him, Naruto stared at the back of his spiky hair and wondered why the raven wouldn't speak to him. He was just beginning to enjoy the boy's presence…

Sasuke suddenly skidded to a stop and turned his whole body towards Naruto, spooking the blonde and almost ramming into him. He tilted his head downwards to the raven, wondering if he was going to say anything.

Sasuke glanced around them as they were a few feet away from the paved street, the beginnings of abandoned cars just becoming prominent as they neared the city. "You," he murmured, "stay close." He turned and stalked between a few dirt-covered cars, feeling along the side of a cement building and peeking his head out into the main street.

What greeted his dark eyes were destroyed pieces of white, shiny material and hundreds of long steel contraptions that looked like bent fingers spread like hay across the pavement of the street. There was blood on some of the shiny material and even a few body parts variously spread and singed throughout the chaos. There were random clothes and cans of food, dead bugs and rotting carcasses and skeletons of animals and people sprinkled across the icing of white metal and broken Katon legs. He envisioned one of those spider-like white robots, with its analyzing electric blue eyes and guns poised and ready at its side, standing about five feet tall and one hundred percent deadly.

It looked like the area had already been cleaned of the spiders, and Sasuke wondered who by. He stepped into the middle of the street and nearly onto a frozen blue hand and waited for the robots to take the bait.

Nothing happened.

Sasuke picked up a large chunk of metal and threw it across the street to hit a brick building, the loud pang of metal echoing through the streets and ringing in his ears.

"The fuck are you doing?" Naruto hissed from his crouched position beside a car, beckoning for Sasuke to come back with his gas tank.

Nothing emerged from the shadows of alleys and nobody resurrected from the sewer holes in the street. He jogged towards a school district and expected Naruto to follow close behind, readying the rifle and crouching behind the wooden fence of a playground that had blood splattered through its protective rubber mulch and red smudges on its equipment. Sasuke spared the sight a remorseful glance and hopped the fence onto a cement walkway that led to an exit of the elementary school. He heard Naruto fall on his ass behind him but quickly recover and deemed him an acceptable travel partner.

The raven tried the double glass doors of the school but they wouldn't budge. He cupped his hands around his eyes and peeked into them, seeing a flickering green exit sign at the opposite end of the hall and illuminating spread papers and school supplies on the ground.

He sighed and stepped a few paces away to scavenge for a different entrance when he heard a grunt, a screech of metal and the shattering of glass behind him. He whirled around and snapped the safety off the rifle and cocked its round ready. Blue eyes were glowing in the dark at him, but not those made of LEDs. Naruto grinned from inside the school, broken glass shattered all around him and some still breaking off from the door and crackling on the ground. "Come on, bastard!"

Sasuke clicked the safety back on and inspected the shattered glass on the ground about four feet in diameter from the door to the inside of the school. He used the rifle mouth to clear jagged glass from the frame of the door and set his hand on it, lugging himself over and readying to steady his feet on broken glass when Naruto reached out and grabbed him by the torso to set him on the clear tile floor beside him, still looking as happy as he did when he broke that door. The raven gave him a startled look.

"You're wearing open shoes," the blond pointed out, scratching the back of his neck and giving him a shy grin.

Sasuke mentally scolded himself for being so brash when he realized he could have cut his feet and lost… blood…

The raven nodded his thanks and turned to the four way in front of them, looked up at the signs written in scribbly type that was appealing to children. In front of them was _Gym _and _Sensei Asuma, Sensei Anko, _and _Nurse. _To the left of them was _Computer Lab _and _Principals Office _and to the right was _Supplies Room _and _Janitor's. _Sasuke beckoned with his right hand for Naruto to follow him to the nurse's office, their footsteps crunching on crayon drawings of children's families and pets and their misspelled scribbled words of favorite foods and sports. The exit sign in front of them flickered and left them in the dim outside light for a few moments but quickly bathed them in green again.

The raven skimmed his hand along a wall and felt a doorknob, barely making out the plate of "NURSE" and pushing the door open.

The office was clean and untouched, a leather bed with clean paper still rolled on top of it. There were a few health documents splayed on the ground and various signs of _Wash your hands! _and _Beware of flu season! _as well as posters about ADHD and diabetes and seizures.

He let Naruto ruffle through the desk of the former nurse. The blond tossed him a key lanyard and he turned and tried the first one on the loop to a tall supply cabinet, successfully opening it and gazing at the minor first aid supplies.

Painkillers, bandages, ointments and rash creams. Prescription medications and extra pairs of students' glasses. He pocketed a few Epi-pens for Juugo who was allergic to bees and nuts, burn ointments for Itachi who seemed to always let himself get singed by Katons and an extra eye patch for Kakashi whose blind eye would get sensitive. Naruto tossed him a medical book about non-contagious diseases and Sasuke was pleased to find out it was one of the few Karin didn't have in her general collection.

"Let's move," he grunted to the blond. He nodded and followed him to the door closest to them, pushing it open from the inside and wandering into a street of equal chaos as the first one.

Naruto let out a low whistle and crossed his arms. "This looks pretty recent, doesn't it? Ya think some other group came through and cleared it?"

The raven nodded to the blonde, but scowled a bit. "Yeah, but that doesn't explain why they left most of these buildings untouched." He flicked his head towards a department store with browned blood on its glass windows and pure white adult bones spread in front of it.

Naruto tightened his fists as they walked across the street, stepping on crunching metal and skirting around pale body parts and random objects. Sasuke seemed unaffected by this, but then again, he should be, too.

They kicked bones from under their feet and Sasuke wrenched open the rusted door of the department store, picking up a thick tibia bone and setting it parallel from the entrance doors so that one of them was still open. They stepped in to the musty smell of stale cloth and still leather.

Naruto looked around and they both headed to the home section, picking out a few heavy blankets and stuffing them into the pack on Sasuke's back. Sasuke bent over and picked up a large box, a picture of a laughing family inside a green tent on it. "Needed an extra tent. Suigetsu told me that Juugo tore a hole through the top of the other one." He stated and handed it to Naruto, turning to a clothing section.

Naruto snickered a bit and tucked the box under his arm.

They ended up with no clothing since they figured that everybody already had enough. Naruto led the way this time outside and kicked the tibia bone from the doors, spotting a road sign with a large _H_ that pointed down the street. He nodded to the sign and asked Sasuke if they should visit it.

"No," Sasuke said. "We'll send Karin and Juugo later."

Naruto nodded and led the way to a gas station that had a Ton-Mart next to it. "Wanna separate? I'll gas up for a few minutes and meet you back in that grocery store." He fondled the crumpled paper that Karin had given him in his pocket, planning to sneak so Sasuke wouldn't have to know what he was getting.

The raven gave him a hard look. "Yeah. You're on your own, I'm sure that it's safe around here though. Don't try to run off or pull any funny shit."

Naruto held up his hands and gave the boy an innocent look. They turned away from each other, Naruto jogging to a gas pump and punching in a few numbers to get it going.

Sasuke stepped through the broken doors of the Ton-Mart, looking around at its stocks. A good fraction of the store was still here, but he could tell other groups had been through from the rummage and dirty pieces of clothing on the floor.

He impatiently walked to a certain section of the store, pocketing medicinal supplies and stray food. Damn, some group really had been through here.

He stepped into the section that he was looking for, thankful he had let Naruto part off so he wouldn't need to see what Sasuke needed.

The raven didn't look up from his feet, preparing to reach out and stuff bottles into his pack, but froze when his arm encircled nothing but air and brushed against dust.

His eyes widened and he backed away from the shelf, afraid to look up from his feet and see what was making his blood turn cold and his toes curl in remorse.

He risked a glance up and gasped at what assaulted his eyes.

Empty shelves.

He whirled around to the neighboring shelf, seeing that that was empty also and let his jaw weaken.

He looked up at the sign that announced what contents were in each aisle, jogging around to the next, the next, the next shelf and the one after and before those.

_Fuck._

_Fuck!_

Sasuke ran back to his starting point, eyes scanning the empty floor for anything at all. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

His first thought was that he was fucked. His second, more rational round of thinking, told him to just head to the hospital without Karin and scavenge there. His third, irrational layer of thinking, lashed out at the others like him and he grit his teeth in anger.

Before he could register what he was doing, he yelled and butted the shelf towering over his head so that it fell back and hit the next empty shelf, empty shelf, empty shelf, and full shelf. He growled when he heard pills racing across the tile floor. Him. It just _had _to be him, didn't it?! Bottles breaking and cardboard tearing filled his ears when shoved the shelf behind him to send it into another domino reaction. He panted in anger, kicked the damn shelf and sent it scooting a few inches and fumed at the day-old dark puddle of piss in front of a prescription desk to his left. Lying in it was a large piece of salmon that had a smiley face with gills cut into it.

Damn _animals, _Sasuke spat in his mind. _I told Itachi we couldn't trust them, we couldn't fucking trust them! _He spat on the floor and clenched his fists, picking up Itachi's rifle. He looked for something else to take his rage out on but was met with empty shelves and floors that infuriated him even further. _Fucking cunts! _He growled in his mind. _I _will _gut them. I'll make jewelry of their intestines and roast their skin and use his hair as fucking floss and piss on them!_

Just a few aisles away from such an angry aura like nuclear energy that he failed to notice, Naruto awkwardly stood in front of a wall with a piece of paper in his sweaty palms.

Karin had drawn a little demon face and wrote to get the fuck over it on the paper under her requests.

Naruto felt a cold bead of nervous sweat trickle down his temple as his poor eyes roamed over titles of various boxes with smiling girls on them that seemed to be laughing at him. Why him? Why not Sasuke?

He looked back at the paper, and then back at the titles of some of the boxes and squinted at the titles. He set the gas tank on the ground and picked up two of the boxes.

The blond stared at them and weighed them in each hand. _What's the difference between maxi and super maxi? _He wandered to himself.

Suddenly, an angry roar made him clutch the boxes to his pecs and he saw about five aisles to the right of him go down like sumo fighters. His jaw dropped as he heard another grunt and the aisles to the left of him went down like dominos and smashed boxes and various food juices spread on the ground.

His eyes tracked slowly to where the aisles had originally fallen, blinking like an owl when he saw the dark haired culprit panting with his fists coiled and his teeth bared.

The raven raised dark, glaring eyes eyes to his own startled blue and roved to the boxes he still held in front of his chest, black eyebrows untangling from each other and nearly rising into his hairline.

Naruto quickly shoved the rectangular boxes into the larger pockets of his cargo pants on the sides of his calves. He stood up and fixed Sasuke with a smoldering blue glare and grumbled, "Not a word."

Sasuke smirked, stood up straight, and nodded his head toward the exit of the store.

* * *

A/N: Hi readers! Thanks for your lovely reviews, they really spur me on. Sorry if my writing's a bit off today, I had a dream that I went into labor and my boyfriend didn't show up. I have a fear of pregnancy and I've been spooked all day. o.e On a more positive note, hope you guys liked this chapter and I'll try to update regularly through school.


	5. Old Oxygen

Chapter 4: Old Oxygen

* * *

Naruto followed Sasuke to the exit of the Ton-Mart, quickly glancing over his shoulder to see if anything caught his attention that they might need. The place was already pretty trashed before the bastard had gone and knocked about ten aisles over, broken Benadryl bottles and the like shattered all over the floor. Variously colored medicinal liquids crossed each other's boundaries and formed to emit a strong aroma of alcohol that made his throat warm and his nose tickle. He noted that a _lot _of those knocked over shelves were empty. He narrows his eyes at those aisles and wondered what triggered Sasuke's temper. Damn if he was going to ask, though. He'd get his head bitten off if he did. The blond snatched a recently expired box of cookies off the floor to nibble on for the long trek back.

He regarded the pale boy with a bit of fear as he was still stalking over broken glass and skin swatches without any hesitance, shoulders tense and his hand turning even whiter on the base of his rifle. Naruto had grown slightly fond of Sasuke's silent companionship, and sometimes the boy would let rip a sarcastic, sharp comment that had the blond sucking in his cheeks to keep from laughing.

He matched his steps with the raven's and pulled up right next to him. "Hey, Sasuke," he said in a slightly wavering voice. He wasn't sure if trying to talk to the boy was a very good idea right now, especially since his breathing seemed to be heavier than normal judging by the large clouds of mist that escaped his straight nose.

"What," Sasuke grumbled and switched the Blaser to the shoulder facing Naruto.

The blond gulped and stuffed his hands into his pockets, bunching the thick material in his fingers. He could ask about the history of this world, or what would they do if a big group of bandits came to their camp, or if he was staying permanently or-

"How old are you?" he blurted, biting his tongue immediately after and made a face at his boots. The yellow shoes were singed in some areas, brown with blood in others, and slightly grey looking with dirt.

"Why?" The raven snapped and tossed the pack higher on his back, contemplating on shoving it at Naruto since his shoulders were becoming sore.

"Geez. Just asking. You don't-"

"Sixteen," he grumbled, knowing that the blonde was probably a few years older than him.

"Really?" Naruto's voice rose. He was sure that the shorter boy was a few years older than him, but they were the same age! "Me, too! When were you born?"

Sasuke let an eyebrow rise in his only sign of surprise. "Yes. In July."

Naruto pouted and kicked at a stray piece of metal as they neared a gun shop with its glass doors shattered open. "Aw. My ID said I was born in October, so you're three months older than me," he drawled and accidentally stepped on a tuft of dry brown hair.

There was a slightly uncomfortable silence at what Naruto figured was the ID part of his statement. _Damn,_ he thought. _Smooth fucking moves. _He swallowed the lump of awkwardness in his throat and tried to mentally wave through the air that was hazy with hesitance.

"Do you remember what Sector you were from?" He mumbled near Sasuke's ear, startling the raven with his proximity. When had he gotten that close?

Sasuke nodded and attempted to focus his blurred vision. "One. Oto," he drew in a large breath of air after his statement. "Itachi got us out of there."

They were in front of the gun shop now, obvious signs of struggle held within. The store was set up in a square with three long shelves lining its walls, the wall on their standing side being a display wall with old range records and animal heads. A great deal of guns from shattered display cases were missing and some even spread on the ground. There were a few intimidating, thick butcher knives imbedded deeply into the thin walls of the small shop.

Naruto dropped the topic for a few moments and let go a long, low whistle. Sasuke grunted in reply and stepped over broken glass, producing a small piece of paper from his pocket and tearing it in half. "You go get this half," he ordered and handed the blond a piece of shredded paper, "and I go get this half," he held it up to his own eyes. "We have enough guns so it's only ammo. You best not pull any shit and take a gun or a Swiss knife," the raven lowered the piece of paper and gave him a hard look.

The blond stuck his tongue out at the boy and shuffled to the inside part where cashiers stood in the display case. He eyed the labels on palm-sized boxes of pellets and plastic bullets, numbers and huge skin rippers. He eyed the extra calibers and personalized barrels randomly placed throughout the section and he finally found the right rounds for the famous rifle.

Across the room, Sasuke squinted at some fancy knives with silver engraved handles and wondered why there was any concern about how pretty a weapon was. A knife was a knife, and a gun was no different from a gold one. He pocketed a few rounds of bullets for their handguns and a large amount for his sniper back at camp. When a box with flames and promises of "settin' the doves aflame" caught his eye, he was shortly reminded of the time Itachi had come across a patrol officer's flamethrower. He slightly winced. Long story short, Karin had to punch his brother in the balls to let go of their gasoline tank.

He kicked a cheap handgun aside and strolled to the front of the store. "Ready?" He called to the blond who seemed to be in another universe judging by the hands in his pockets and glazed eyes.

Blue eyes dazedly locked on his and a blond head was shook of its thoughts. Naruto grunted and trudged out of the shop, took a heavy step over shattered glass and metal.

They walked peacefully back into the dead forest splotched with green. A mist was gently showering from the grey sky and made Naruto's neck and arms cold.

Naruto hummed and crossed his arms behind his bandaged head. He racked his brain for something to keep his mind running and decided to ask the questions that had been bothering him most. "So, Itachi. Why's he such an arse? N' how old is he? Seems to be twenty-somethin'." He slurred, not sure why it was so natural to let his tongue be so lazy around the meticulous Sasuke, whom he witnessed packing things by size in their pack.

Sasuke sighed and shouldered the pack again, knowing they had a great deal of supplies and were set for a good three weeks with it. They'd had to trek back here with the whole group since it was the best town he'd come across so far, untouched and free of Katons. "Yeah, yeah, I know it. He's just too paranoid even though most people out here are dead. We only even come across bandits once in a blue moon. Heard about that shit he pulled on you last night, Suigetsu told. And he's twenty one." He finally unbuckled the chest clasp on the pack and turned his back to Naruto's side, knowing the blond would get the message. He lugged it off with his left hand and shoved it into the boy's chest.

"Ow," the blond grunted, ribs still slightly sore. He shrugged on the pack that felt like it had another fucking Kakashi in it. "Damn," he grunted again. "Do we really need all this?"

"Yes." Came the clipped reply from Sasuke, whom carried his rifle along the length of his arm now. Naruto sighed and carried on his attempted conversation.

"Well, why's he gotta be so paranoid? He yelled at me for havin' your shoe, for Kami's sake."

Sasuke crossed his arms and faced him, walking backwards and raised a fine brow. "Why _did _you have my shoe?"

Naruto growled as he didn't see what the big fucking deal about having a damn sandal in his hand was. "Well, I found it on the damn ground and picked it up 'cause it was weird looking! You had 'em in random places, too." He eyed the raven's toned triceps and how they flexed when the boy dropped his arms back to his sides. Sasuke rolled his eyes and fell back beside him again. "They only weigh a few ounces. Better for running. Not like those monsters you wear that probably weigh a pound each."

"These are good for running, too. Probably got a greater range of terrain than those you're wearin'."

Sasuke ignored him and relaxed his shoulders a bit, appreciating the blond's light conversation and cheery personality. It was a great change from the grim ones back at camp, also made dreary by his brother.

They were well into the forest now, getting closer to where he had shot that guy with white eyes. The raven didn't let the bloodred message bother him too much, figuring that worrying was left for Kakashi.

He sighed held up the Itachi's rifle with two hands, admiring its black wood detail and deadly accuracy. It had a great weight and nearly no recoil.

Naruto glanced over at the M8 as well, the shine of the scope catching his eye. "That yours?"

"Itachi's."

"Ah," he blurted, his mouth going on autopilot when a feeling of nostalgia and fondness washed over his body. "Looks nice. I like those, they got nearly-"

He clutched his head when a pulse of memory assaulted his conscience, his skull becoming hot and searing with pain as he watched a fuzzy image of combat boots trekking through and splattering mud on waxed white marble floors. He heard a gruff voice yelling in the background, not able to make out the words but its baritone piercing his ears. His vision was shaky and he saw the butt of a gun swinging by his hip, a tanned man with two red triangles on his cheeks waving his arm like a madman at him and beckoning to go hisway. By the man's hip was a Blaser M8, hitting his side as he jogged away from a completely white room and yelled agitatedly at a few other men.

Sasuke's voice sounded like he was underwater and the raven was calling to him from the surface. "-uto. Naruto!" there was a cold hand on his shoulder with an iron grip. The memory faded away as quickly as it had appeared. Shaken, he focused on the pale, muscular arm and oddly shaped bruise on its wrist.

He stood up straight and blinked at the other boy, not sure what to feel about his memory. His eyes burned and his head ached and his blood felt like molasses in his veins. "I'm fine," he said, scratching the palm of his hand and watching his racing pulse at a tan wrist. "Just remembered something, that's all."

Dark, narrow eyes carefully gazed at him and he couldn't help but admire that they looked like melted obsidian. "What was it?"

"Nothing important, I don't think," the blond said distractedly. He relayed the memory to the raven, nodding here and there and who also deemed it unimportant.

"But you should still tell Karin," he advised when they started moving again, this time a bit faster. "She's planning to get you to a hospital. Not sure what tests she'll run, though." Sasuke had been wanting to get to a hospital also, hopefully getting what he needed done while Karin ran those specific tests.

Naruto noticed the ache in his bones and the emptiness in his ribs for the first time. He felt the mental pull of… _missing_ something, or somebody, or some people. He felt like he should be worried about something judging by the tension in his shoulders and the locks in his knuckles, the furrow in his brow and the clenching of his jaw he hadn't realized was there before. What he felt… was that apprehension? Was something going to happen?

Naruto cleared the mental mist of his thoughts and grunted an affirmative. The blonde tried to cheer up and made eye contact with his companion. "Hey, where'd she get her medical knowledge anyway?"

Sasuke looked into the trees and took a few moments to remember the girl's past. "Got put in medic training as soon as she was able to talk. Advanced knowledge comes from the books we give her," he nodded to the pack. "There's only a few things she hasn't done on us yet, like major surgery or take off a limb."

Naruto let a small smile appear on his face when he pictured the redhead going nuts on Suigetsu. "Is she our age?" He said softly, knowing he would be admiring her sharpness even more if she was.

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded, letting his face soften with the thought of his faithful childhood friend. "She's a month older than me. Suigetsu and Juugo are our age, too. Kisame and Deidara-" he paused in his speech, nostrils flaring at the thought of Kisame and his turning against them. He had always known that the group couldn't trust those two, but Itachi had insisted that his childhood friends meant no harm with their violent actions towards the younger of the group. Now it was up to the raven whether they stayed or not. Leave it to the pair to indirectly harm his brother by endangering him, in ways that were never obvious and always hazardous or deadly.

"Wow. Guess Itachi tugged the lot of you kids with him, huh? And how'd you come across Kakashi?" Naruto had sensed the tense vibe coming from the raven when he mentioned these Deidara and Ki-whatever people. That was a probably a subject best for later.

"No. It was just me and Itachi for a long while. We came across Juugo and Karin in the partial ruins of One – maybe when I was about eleven - and we found Suigetsu floating in a river."

The two had completely straight faces before they turned into each other and burst into guffaws from Naruto and a few snorts from Sasuke.

Naruto set his hands on his hips as he laughed into the setting sun. "Damn, does that sound right. Saw him chug that whole gallon bottle in nearly one go this morning."

That comment earned a chuckle from the raven and after that, they focused on the moist grass of the ground. They were about ten more minutes away from the camp, and Sasuke couldn't wait to show up Itachi that Naruto wasn't a bandit or a killer through that he had not tried to kill Sasuke nor rob him of their weapons and supplies.

"But," the raven started, waving the unpleasant thought of Suigetsu away. "Kakashi was alone and walked straight into our camp like he owned it about a year and a half ago. Said we were too obvious and he tracked us from ten miles away, and that he didn't understand why a fleet of Katons hadn't ambushed us. He's been the unofficial leader ever since."

Naruto nodded in amusement as he thought of the silver haired man's obvious air of authority. Cold winter air squeezed through the thick branches of the forest and curled around the both of them.

"Geez," Naruto crossed his arms and hunched his back. "What month is it?"

Sasuke paused and looked into the purple sky. "I'd say it's January. Haven't seen a calendar in a while."

A comfortable silence loomed over the two of them for some long moments, fatigue sinking into their bones. Their footsteps were slow and gentle, crunching on dead leaves left from autumn. Naruto ran a hand through his hair, wincing as his fingers caught in marls and tugged them free.

"Are we gonna head back and use one of those locker rooms you spoke of in a few days?" Naruto asked, hoping that they could. When he would sleep, he sometimes caught a few bad (_bad) _whiffs of himself. There was a stream by camp but it was halfway frozen through and surely by tonight it would be thick enough to skid around on.

"Yeah. Hit the hospital, too. Probably tomorrow or even the day after," Sasuke quietly replied and curled his cold fists in his pant pockets.

"Hm. Why do you guys need so much medical supplies? From what I saw and heard you bunch barely ever get touched," he mused and tilted his head to the side.

There was a brief, nearly tense pause and a visible furrowing of the raven's brows.

"Just a precaution."

Naruto tightened his lips and nodded, seeing that there was nothing more to be asked or said.

* * *

When they finally returned to camp, the air was like Goliath had finally been slain or the murderer had finally been captured by the law.

Karin had gotten in his face long enough to understand that Naruto was to give her the _requests _she made

The glare on Itachi's face had lessened a fraction of a degree and Kakashi smiled a bit brighter. Karin regarded him for a bit longer through the glare of her glasses through the fire and Suigetsu set his shrugged arm closer to Naruto on their log. Juugo poked the fire's embers a bit closer to his feet with a small stick and Sasuke acted like he always had.

They ate from plastic bowls of canned soup that Juugo had calmly poured and sipped on paper cups of stale cider. Itachi had tugged his younger brother back to the tent area and all was silent as the rest of the group was in contemplative silence.

Karin snorted and tossed her head back. "Man, I wish we still had bedtime stores around."

Suigetsu obnoxiously spat by her hip and spread his legs a bit wider on the ground. "Damn if we need those pussy lullabies," he grunted, "could sleep with several Katons on my ass."

Something tugged inside of the blonde when he heard Suigetsu arrogant comments and impolite slurs. He was just about to open his mouth and say something when he heard a loud rustling from Kakashi's side of the fire and turned his attention to the leader of the camp.

Kakashi produced from his thick vest a bright orange book and flipped to a dog eared page, clearing his throat and settling in his seat a bit more comfortably.

Complaints and Suigetsu's curses sounded out around all of them while Naruto threw his plastic bowl at Kakashi's head and Juugo gave the man a disapproving grimace. Karin scrunched her red nose and stood up, wiping dead grass from the backs of her thighs and tying her spiky red hair in a long ponytail.

"I'll take first watch, Kakashi," she announced. "I won't be tired for a few more hours anyway."

The silver haired man nodded and directed his amused stare to Suigetsu. "You'll be taking second and third watch, Sui - punishment for your especially inappropriate behavior today," he chided and squinted his eyes closed in a smile.

Suigetsu loudly groaned and flopped on his stomach, crushed his paper cup in his fist and continued to throw a fit by rolling around and threatening to drench out the fire with his piss.

Naruto chuckled a bit and settled a bit lower on the log he was leaning on. Overall, it had been a pretty good and interesting day and it had led to sore muscles and exhaustion for him. The air was dry and cold now, his slowing breaths coming in light puffs in front of his eyes as he wrapped himself in a blanket and let his eyes slip shut.

Behind the tents was held a debate – or was it a conversation? – between the two pale brothers.

"I still don't believe you, outoto," the elder murmured, hand on the pistol in his belt loop.

Sasuke pushed some of his bangs behind his ear and adopted a tenser stance, crossing his arms and setting his mouth a bit tighter. "Then tell me," he bit out, knowing that if he raised his voice he would lose all credibility to Itachi, "why would _every last one of them_ be gone? Everything that had to do with them, gone? There was a whole salmon on the ground, Itachi. _A whole salmon. _You and hell know Kisame's capable of that."

"Anybody can fish, Sasuke. I'm well aware that you weren't fond of either of them-"

"Nobody in this camp was _fond _of them, Itachi. And for how much you cared about it in the past, you sure as hell don't seem like you're giving a fuck about it right now. Two weeks,Itachi. _Two whole weeks. _Two whole weeks without them, you ass. They're probably moving ahead of us and wiping the rest of them out to-"

A sharp sound echoed throughout the clearing, Sasuke's eyes glazing over when he stared at the buzzing yellow lantern for a few moments. His cheek stung and his left eye slightly watered when he caressed his own cheek with a ginger thumb. The raven felt blood hotly rise to his skin and tried to rid the hurt look to his brother, forcing apathy to his eyes and biting the tip of his tongue.

This time, his brother's voice was raised and commanding, unrelenting and unforgiving. "Then you should have looked for them more carefully. Tell me, Sasuke, did you search every inch of that store? Did you even bother to check other shelves around you before you so foolishly lashed out? This problem _will _be fixed by tomorrow. It's as simple as checking a pharmacy and that hospital. For the second time in a short span," Sasuke cringed with embarrassment when he realized that if they listened closely, the members at the fire would be able to decipher his words, "_I thought I raised you better than this._"

"They're trying to hurt you," Sasuke rasped and stepped closer to his brother so that he was looking into bagged eyes and long bangs. "They're trying to hurt all of us." He was slightly lightheaded and he stepped back again, evening his breathing and trying to relax his wired body before he hurt himself.

"You look pale," Itachi turned his back to him. "Go eat."

"Not until you listen to me," Sasuke called and clenched his fists when his brother's worst glare was directed to him. It was the kind directed to government officials, references of family, and a certain blond.

"You will eat."

"I will die."

This time, Itachi pivoted his whole body to his little brother and grabbed the front of his shirt.

"_You will not. _This is why we have the boy you found. He will help you whether he is willing or to be sedated."

"Now," Itachi murmured, dragging Sasuke by the front of his shirt to press their foreheads together. "Tomorrow, you _will _go to the pharmacy and scavenge all you can. Tomorrow, you _will _set foot in that hospital whether it has the right equipment or not. And tomorrow, you _will _take from that boy what you brought him here for. He is not your playmate, he is not your friend, he is not your partner, and he certainly is not your team member. He is a source, an outlet. You _will _remember that. If you don't," Itachi made sure to scrape his nails on Sasuke's chest enough to peel dry skin but not bleed. "I will make sure you will never be provided with such luxuries again."

Itachi shoved Sasuke against a tree hard enough to make him grunt and stalked off towards the campfire.

The raven smoothed his crumpled shirt and felt tired enough to collapse right then and there. He slightly panted when he became dizzy and his mouth dry. His brother was lashing out much more than before and it was beginning to startle him. He bent over to switch off their electric lantern and readied for slumber.

Behind a tree some ten feet away, a pair of blue eyes squeezed themselves shut.

* * *

A/N: Hi guys! I had a lot of free time this week so this chap was written. Putting some action in here quick, next chapter. And I'd like to ask those of you who plan to drop a review one question: What do you think's up with Sasuke? I dropped maybe a few vague hints, but I feel like the rat's out. That may just be me. Anyway, please review and I'll try to update on the weekend!


	6. New Stream

Chapter 5: New Stream

* * *

Sixty-four miles away, a large congregation of a group was huddled around a campfire, a female figure being in the center and more commanding than any of the males in the group could ever hope to be.

"Thank you," the girl said, and held out a piece of cloth to a brown haired boy with a white dog happily panting away on his lap. "For letting me borrow Akamaru."

Kiba Inuzuka gave the girl a grim nod and roughly patted his military issue mutt on the back.

There was nearly visible tension in the air as everyone was waiting for the slender girl in front of the crackling hearth to deliver long-awaited news. She had left the camp a bit under a week ago on a quest to track a certain, meddling, _idiotic _someone whom had gone missing.

Whether that certain someone extricated himself from the group, they didn't know, but his close friend had been there to (rather monosyllably) assure the survivors that the boy wouldn't run away and was probably licking his wounds somewhere nearby.

Ino Yamanaka, military medic and former general, had gathered her pretty self, a piece of the castaway's ratty blue shirt, and a dog she had worked well with in her previous years together to form her own search team. The woman worked best by herself and worst with the pink-haired stuck-up pushy brat that was sitting directly in front of her and chewing her nails.

The blonde looked across the congregation. Gaara Suna, Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga and the injured form of her cousin Neji, Sakura Haruno, Sai whom revealed nothing but his love for high end art supplies and male anatomy, Tenten Kunai, Rock Lee, Jiraiya Sannin and Tsunade Senju all looked at her with expressions nothing short of concerned and saddened.

Ino sighed and sank down onto the ground to balance on her haunches, an overly dramatic gasp piercing the air in front of her.

"I- is he…" a female, broken voice just barely brushed the oxygen around them, "Naruto… he's…" wavering sobs broke the tension in the air and it was soon replaced with panic. The lone sobs got more strangled as the creator tried to form words, but could only form one. "_Naruto!" _

Ino lifted her pale blue eyes to her best friend whose face was scrunched up and partially hidden in her knees and hands. Tears moistened her skin and mixed with her dripping misery as another pair of sobs broke out and she was attacked by a figure clad in green.

"Don't worry, Sakura-san!" a sobbing boy with an overgrown bowl haircut with tears and snot running down his face yelled. "I will protect you from the perils of this world with the _sprin-_" The crescendo of his voice was quickly cut off and a slim hand removed itself from the top of Lee's head.

"Lee," the owner of the hand reprimanded. "Sakura," it said in a softer tone. "Let's just try to be rational right now. Ino hasn't even said anything yet and Naruto might still be alive. I know it's best to assume the worst and worst to assume the best, but at least have a little hope in him." The tone of Tenten's voice was only slightly reprimanding and mostly encouraging.

"She's right," Ino said and rose from the ground. "I haven't said a single word about him and three of you are already mourning his death," she reprimanded, and quickly turned to glare at a pair of ridiculously thick eyebrows that scrunched together. "Which, by the way, is _not _the situation."

Sakura's sobs slowed with a gasp and reduced to light hiccups. Lee's tears were renewed with a joyful vigor, the green – clad boy strengthening his inner connection to his youth.

"Oh, Kami," Ino scolded and was about ready to punch Lee's lights out. "Would you stop crying, Lee!" The blonde girl rested her irritated eyes on every member of the camp and set her hands on her hips. "Naruto is _not_ dead, he is alive, and he is fine. Just a few injuries from what I could see.

"It took me a long time to get even near the trail that he and Gaara and the rest of the Jinchuuriki were on. Rain is heavier down south and clears up tracks. I found scuffle marks by an apartment complex and a slight difference in color on the pavement under it, darker by friction and from blood. I can only assume that Naruto had fallen off the ladder climbing up the apartment building and fell back down. Someone dragged his body for a few feet before the marks stopped. I found a few bullet shells and destroyed Katons. He' s been taken in by a group with a member who obviously knows how to deactivate them. They've only got about five people, from what I saw. I don't know what Naruto's doing there but he's acting normally and looks like he's lost some weight. Their food supply is abundant and their medical supplies are suspiciously high. They've got a medic who seems to be at about an intermediate level of healing. They've got two or three swordsmen, plenty of guns, and a few weapons under their sleeve that we better steer clear of. They've got two adults who look like military material and three adolescents who look in excellent health and training. I know one's got severe medical problems but I couldn't pin what it was. Tied it to empty and thrown over medical aisles in a grocery store. There's random traces of blood everywhere and their camp is small, but they have an SUV and extra supplies about a mile away from it. There's empty plastic baggies in there, which looked like they were filled with drugs. I headed back to their camp at nightfall and followed two of the members who looked like relatives to listen to their conversation and hid behind a tree. They were talking about Naruto. From what I heard, they have malicious intentions to use him for something, and I'm going to assume that it's for medical purposes. One of the adults is missing an eye, and the scar tissue looks relatively new so I suspect that Naruto may be without an eye or even a limb soon. I don't know why Naruto hasn't tracked us and come home, but he may be under strict supervision and slash or being threatened. So because of that, this group's next mission will be to retrieve Naruto and leave nothing with that group's remains. They are the enemy. No matter who it is within that group, they are to be killed. Naruto will be brought home.

* * *

Sixty-four miles away, Naruto sneezed so hard that he hunched over his bowl of granola.

The sneeze startled Suigetsu awake who gave him a grumpy look and wiped the drool off his chin and dug back into his oatmeal. Karin blinked, chuckling a bit and flipped through a medical book yet again. Naruto tilted his head a bit to see the title and cringed when he saw it had to do with severed limbs and lacerations.

He set his empty bowl down and flopped himself near Karin's lap, looking up at her and tiny words. She raised her eyebrows and focused scarlet eyes on his blue ones, partly irritated and some interested. "What is it, Naruto?"

The blond hummed and pressed his hands together, then played with a piece of dead grass. "When can I get my bandages off?" He gave her an innocent grin and tried his best to look like an angel.

Karin rolled her eyes and slammed her book shut in his face. "No time soon, you idiot. But I will check up on your injuries."

She motioned for him to sit up and, with gentle fingers, unraveled the gauze around his head and neatly rolled it to place it in her lap. She pressed ginger fingers to his temples and barely pressed, waiting for a sign of pain from the blond.

Nothing.

Said boy looked bored and slightly grumpy, his shoulders slumped over and lips fixed in a pout. She slid her fingers slightly farther behind his head, completely confident that she would at least receive a grunt of pain or a grueling comment about being manhandled.

Nothing.

Karin frowned and noticeably increased the pressure of her appendages, now running across the whole blond head and increasingly pressing harder and harder. Blue eyes became glazed as they stared into the distance, slightly tinted from the shade of the rising sun.

"Are you giving me a head massage?" Naruto fixed lazy eyes on the redhead.

Karin removed her hands from the soft blond hair and visibly fumed. "Concussions are supposed to take weeks, sometimes even months to heal! How can yours be healed within a few days? You fell off a damn building, for Kami's sake! Is there something you're not telling me?" She gave him a stink eye through her lenses and clenched her fists by her lap.

"Eh?" he grunted, tilting his head to the side. "I didn't do anything and I barely know anythin'."

Karin growled and yanked him up by his shoulders, the boy towering over her but yet he was looking up at her. "Take off your shirt."

He pursed his lips and peeled his sleep shirt with little swirls all over it off. She ripped his bandages off and gingerly poked at a tan rib that was once nearly black in bruising. The redhead pressed her palms fully against his cage and identified his ribs in ordered sizes, running nimble fingers across the smooth, _healed _bones and harshly poking at them sometimes. Naruto bent away from her when she did that, bowing his back and turning to his side as he snorted and tried not to giggle from her obvious tickle attack. "Karin, stop it!"

Said girl looked up into the laughing face and her confusion and anger slowly melted away. _So he really is healed, huh,_ she thought. _Something else, this guy is._

The sun was well in the sky now, probably around eleven and there was still one member who hadn't roused from their tent and trotted into their "living room". Naruto's wheezes slowed and he let out a few last laughs, shrugging his shirt on and collapsing back to the ground. Karin backed away from him and smiled a bit, returning to her book and placing herself next to a gently snoring Suigetsu. Kakashi's eyes were still upturned at the blond boy's bright smile and contagious laughter. It seemed to him that he didn't have a single mean bone in his body, practically a boy of Christian word.

He watched as said boy crawled over to Suigetsu and stole his oats, stuffing his mouth with the bowl and chewing heartily.

"Naruto-kun," Kakashi chided, "Are you still hungry? It's okay to ask for more. You do look a bit thin." Without waiting for an answer, the man poured a lukewarm ladleful of oatmeal into his bowl and handed it to the boy. He took it with two hands and nearly devoured it, licking his fingers clean and curling up next to the fire when he was done. "Thank you," he told Kakashi.

Just then, a few rustles from the woods were heard and slowly emerged the gloomy aura that Sasuke was giving off. He had light bags under his eyes and his hair looked oddly disheveled, the spikes on the back of his head pointing to the east instead of in all directions. Naruto craned his neck to watch the boy hiss and bare venomous fangs to everybody (though not really) and drag his feet like a zombie to the forest opposite their camp.

"What was that about?" He grumbled.

"Ah," was all Kakashi offered and twirled a handgun in his fingers with a suspicious gleam in his eye. The look quickly turned to serious and then to deciding.

Naruto decided not to say anything and bundled like a bean in his blanket by the fire, stuffing his cheeks into his arms and going down like timber for a nap.

* * *

Itachi was crouching by the completely frozen river and staring at a fat fish molded in it.

He contemplated cutting the fish out with his knife or just shattering the ice whole. The brunet nodded to himself and tugged a Swiss knife free of his belt loop. He gently chipped at the ice and bemusedly watched when ice shavings spread everywhere while he dragged the blade down the river. He pointed the knife about two inches away from the actual animal and pressed it into the deep ice, watching as hairline fractures appeared under and around the sharp blade. He yanked it out and repeated the process over and over again, grunting as he did so and breaking into a light sweat. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and ran the knife in a circle to check for areas of ice he had left uncut. Now came the difficult part.

He squeezed his fingers into the small alleys the ice allowed and gently tugged on the block of ice containing the fish. Fractures spread like lightning, rising up from the bottom of the river to meet Itachi's eyes. He tugged harder and the ice gave way with a creak and a few more shatters and tugged so hard that the ice block nearly came crashing into his chest. The brunet sighed and twirled the ice around so that he found the face and stared the fish into its dull, metallic eyes. _Dinner, _he tried to mentally tell it.

He sighed again and watched the puffs of mist appear around his nose and mouth. He would have to hurry back to camp so that the fish didn't melt in his grasp and save it for lunch or dinner.

The brunet slugged his heavy ponytail over his shoulder and observed as is nearly reached his calves in length. It was that time again. Where Sasuke would cut his hair to his shoulder blades, a great length from where it was currently at the bottom of his back.

He stood up and tracked his eyes to where his little brother was making a commotion in the car. He shrugged through some thorn bushes and into the small opening where their SUV barely fit and where Sasuke had slung open the whole rising trunk and was halfway in the vehicle, rummaging around for something.

He blinked when Sasuke grunted and the cap of a pill bottle was heard popping open and the clamor of pills against each other rang in Itachi's ears. A thick, dry swallow was heard as well as the visible relaxing of his brother's body.

Sasuke removed himself from the car and set his left foot on the bumper, using it to support himself as he quickly leaned up and grabbed the tip of the trunk. He grabbed the handle and jumped to the ground, quickly ducking his head when the trunk shut close with a dull thud and a slight whine.

He turned around and came face to face with Itachi, who seemed unaffected and the complete opposite of the visibly started Sasuke.

"Taking the emergency ones, I see," Itachi drawled and tucked his fish under his arm. He regarded Sasuke with indifferent eyes and a condescending voice, looking at him through his nostrils.

The raven became irritated and put some distance between them. "Just for this morning," he said.

"You're right," Itachi repeated. "Just this morning. What are we doing later?"

Sasuke looked up at him and quickly broke eye contact. "Going to the school and bathing. Checking all the pharmacies and grocery stores. Scavenging the hospital."

The brunet narrowed his eyes and didn't say anything, having a feeling that something was going to go wrong. "You heard me," he murmured and bored his eyes into his brother's. "If you even so as get a paper cut or a scratch in town, you will not be provided such luxuries."

Sasuke nodded and looked down again.

"What is Naruto?"

"Nothing."

"I'll give you one more chance. _What is Naruto?_"

Sasuke kept himself from sighing and looked to the side. "Not my playmate," he murmured. "Not my friend. Not my partner. Not my teammate." He sighed. "Just an outlet."

Itachi made no sign that he had even listened to his words and slowly turned to trek back to the camp, twigs snapping under his steps and branches practically moving out of the way for him.

Sasuke bit his lip and uncrossed his fingers from behind his back.

* * *

Kakashi was teaching Naruto and Juugo how to make a tourniquet when Itachi stalked back into the camp holding a frozen fish.

"Dinner," was all he grunted and slugged the fish to Juugo. "Got no time for lunch because we're all heading into town to bathe."

Suigetsu and Karin sighed from their corner of the small fire. "Hopefully there's some warm water," Karin put in.

Itachi nodded at her and turned towards Naruto, Juugo and Kakashi. "Get ready and pack clean clothes, pick some up in town if you don't have any," he spat at the blond and sat away from everyone else. "Be heading on our way immediately after Sasuke gets back."

"Where'd he go?" Naruto began to stand up.

"None of your damn business."

The blond made a face and trotted away from the brunet like a scared fox. _Kami, _he thought to himself. _I don't think I've met anybody more irritable than that weasel. _Suigetsu smirked at him through his gallon tank of water and stood up as well.

"Better go get Kusanagi," the boy grinned and his sharp teeth glowed in the firelight. "Love that baby."

Naruto looked down at the skinny boy and frowned. "Who's Kusanagi?"

"Come over here," Suigetsu chuckled and beckoned to follow him to the tent area. The boy went to his own tent and after rummaging around for a few moments, emerged with a long object. It was a deep, rich, nearly black navy scabbard with a slightly worn matching handle. It shone iridescently in the dim light.

"This is Kusanagi," Suigetsu smiled and unsheathed a long, straight sword. "It used to be Sasuke's chokutō. It's mine now since the bastard lost a bet about a month ago," he pointed the sword toward the ground and sliced a blade of dead grass in half. "I totally get why he's such a sore loser about it. Best damn sword ever." He sheathed the blade and stuck the scabbard through his back belt loops.

Naruto got an uneasy feeling when he was around Suigetsu. He didn't know why, but the boy just made him… _uncomfortable. _A bit suspicious. He especially got a weird vibe from the boy when he had unsheathed Kusanagi and called Sasuke a sore loser. The raven came off to him as the type of person who would create a loophole in a bet, like saying that if he lost he would give you money and giving you a penny when he did lose. The situation just didn't seem right, and Naruto wondered why Sasuke hadn't seemed to say anything about it in the past.

They walked back towards the campfire and were paralleled by Sasuke. The boy sat down next to Juugo and they had a hushed, serious exchange of words. Karin shaved at a piece of wood and listened also, darting her eyes around the whole group as she rounded a vicious looking stake. Kakashi flipped through his porn book and Naruto wondered how the man didn't ever pop a boner when he read those books.

Itachi stood up and slugged a duffel bag over his shoulder. "We leave to the school now," he commanded and made no room for protests when he stalked away so fast that Naruto was sure he'd have to nearly run to keep up. Everybody else took their time and Juugo pressed his huge shoe into the fire, stomping it out nonchalantly and following Itachi. The blond pursed his lips and followed the large boy, also followed by Sasuke.

They had been walking through the dry forest for about thirty minutes when Naruto noticed. Kakashi and Itachi were in the lead, followed closely by a lone Suigetsu, followed up by Sasuke and Juugo with Naruto and Karin backing the line up.

He tried to muffle his snort at how puny Sasuke looked compared to the Juugo the fucking tank. Juugo had to be about six eight or so. His dark head only came to about the middle of Juugo's elbow and shoulder, and the taller man was slumping. Juugo's BMI was probably two or three times more than Sasuke's and he looked like a child next to his father. The blond puffed out his cheeks and desperately tried not to make a farting sound with them if he tried to laugh.

He turned to Karin who was glaring at him with flared nostrils and a scrunched chin. "What the hell is so funny?" She grabbed his ear and tugged his ear down to her mouth. "If you're laughing at my height I will turn you inside out by your d-"

"No! No! I'm not laughing at you," he whispered back and grinned as he pointed a finger towards Sasuke and Juugo. "I'm laughing at their heights."

Karin unwrinkled her chin when it turned into a grin once she saw what the blond was talking about. She let out a few evil cackles and poked Sasuke in the small of the back, who completely stopped and turned irritated eyes to her. "Wh-"  
"You damn shorty," she picked. "Look at Juugo compared to you!"

Sasuke narrowed at her and craned his neck up to said boy. Juugo offered no say in the situation and stared blankly at his own shoes. The raven turned back to her and furrowed his eyebrows, "Who gives a shit?"

That comment earned a small scuffle from Karin and the raven ended up backing the group up next to Naruto with a sore elbow and a scowl. The redhead happily trotted along next to Juugo, looking smaller next to him than he had. He inwardly cursed his warm morals at not being able to hit Karin as a result of his respect to her saving his life more than a few times.

Naruto walked with his palms pressed together behind his back and peeked at the raven from the corner of his vision. He mustered up the courage to poke the boy in the side and swallow his pride when the boy gave him a tired, searing glare and whispered, "Don't worry. I look short next to him too."

The glare softened in its degrees until it was just a simple gaze.

* * *

Karin got voted to shower last since the last time they had bathed, she had stomped over all of them and gone first. Naruto amusedly watched when she jammed her finger into Suigetsu's chest and promised him painful death if he used up all the warm water.

Earlier, they had walked up to the school and departed to search for fresh clothes. Kakashi let him know his pant size since they were about the same height and scavenged a department store for clothes. In his arms he held some dark jeans, a dark orange thermal shirt, an orange pair of boxers and some thick boot socks. They had all returned and proceeded to vote Karin last and keep guard while she showered by herself after the boys.

They filed into the glass door he had broken for Sasuke when they came here and pointed at the _Gym _sign in front of them. They shuffled through the school hallways until they came face to face with a pair of double metal doors with caged windows on them. Itachi pulled it open to reveal a vast room with two basketball courts, a few nets and goals and stray balls littered about. Naruto was filled with sadness when he glanced at one of them to see a small, bloody handprint on it and a bullet hole through the foam of the soccer ball.

Suigetsu kept his head down when their footsteps echoed through the gym, squeaking and scuffling here and there, imitating the constant ones Naruto was sure would echo through the room when the students played. There was a stage with old paint buckets splattered on its wooden floor, the blond deciding to assume that the red stains on the surface was paint and not blood.

Once they passed the stage they were met with another open doorway that had a broken piano off to its side and cement stairs leading into the darkness. Itachi unzipped his duffel bag and rummaged through it to emit a flashlight, switching it on and shining it down the spiral staircase. At the end of it was a visible sign that read _Locker Room _with smiley faces on either side of it.

They were all silent as they piled down the staircase and neared the sign above a moist wooden door. Kakashi bared a gun and nodded to the rest of the group. He kicked down the door and waited for any mechanical whirs or cocking guns, but nothing came. Itachi covered in front of the man and shone his flashlight around the dim room with sunlight infiltrating through its windows near the ceiling. There was two lines of showers with green curtains and a changing bench with pikes that still had small duffel bags and shirts, some small shoes spread on the ground as well as a few shampoo bottles. Naruto picked a few up and tossed them to his group mates.

"Who wants to try for hot water?" Suigetsu pulled Kusanagi out from his belt loops and threw it on the bench. Sasuke eyed the sword hungrily and fixed a deadly glare on the white haired boy.

"I will," he growled and turned to a shower to rip open its curtain and tug on the temperature knob. He twisted out and to the left and a high water pressure echoed through the locker room and the raven yanked the curtain closed and stepped away.

They waited long moments before thick steam rose from the shower and earned some relieved sighs from the boys. They modestly spread out among the large room and cleared the bench of its remains.

Naruto switched the shower on and shrugged off his shirt. He tossed a shampoo bottle in there and picked up a clean looking towel from the bench and draped it over the wall between the showers. He waited until he saw the beginnings of steam before he unlaced his boots and slipped out of his pants and boxers in one go. He heard Suigetsu heavily sigh from two showers away from his.

The blond stepped in the shower and immediately jumped away from its searing temperature, adjusting it so that it wouldn't burn off his skin. He bent over and picked up the blue bottle of shampoo, squirting a large amount into his hand and massaging it into his scalp. He rubbed away the troublesome memories of him, cleaned matted burgundy clumps and dirt from his tresses. He stuck his face into the hot water, letting soap run down his back and shoulders and turning around to squirt some more shampoo on his hand. He distantly heard another shower turn on and a hiss.

Naruto lathered his hands and scrubbed at his arms; washing away built up dirt and dried blood. He scrubbed at his chest and stomach, cleansing himself of sweat and more dirt. The blond bent over and scrubbed at the downy hairs of his legs and muscles of his thighs. He shot up when he felt the highly pressured water practically punch him in the balls and glared at the shower head. He bent over so that the water pounded his back and neck to scrub at his cold feet. A deep groan emitted from two showers away from him. He ignored it and stood up to wash his head again, but froze when he heard another groan and a sigh from the same stall. He narrowed his eyes and didn't notice the huge pile of shampoo in his hand to rise on his toes and peek over his stall at a head of white hair that was barely visible under a shower head. He scrunched his nose when he heard a few more awkward pants from that stall and grimaced in horror.

"Kami _damn, _Suigetsu!" Naruto bellowed and made a disgusted face. "Stop fucking jacking off!"

A pale forearm appeared on the wall five stalls away and quickly turned into the right arm, shoulder and face of Sasuke. The raven scowled and rubbed water out of his ears. "What? I- Kami! Put that fucking thing away, Suigetsu!" He yelled. Sasuke made the funniest face the Naruto thought he'd ever seen and threw himself back into his stall.

Suigetsu chuckled and made a lewd grin at Naruto. "'Fucking thing', you are _right, _Sasuke."

Said boy's shower immediately switched off and he could be heard fumbling around for his clothes and violently shrugging them on. "I'm leaving right now, you fucking pig," the raven growled and unsuccessfully tried to stuff his foot in his boot.

Naruto switched off his shower and vigorously rubbed his hair and body, tying the towel he used around his waist and running out to the bench. "I'm outta here," he grumbled before another shower turned off and Itachi emerged with nothing but a pair of black briefs and wet hair plastered to his torso. Naruto watched with wide eyes as Itachi practically plowed ground and ripped Suigetsu's shower curtain off its hinges and hacked at the shower head. It broke off and a thick, strong stream pummeled Suigetsu into the ground and Itachi grabbed the boy in a chokehold and dragged him onto the cold floor. Naruto covered his poor eyes with his hands as soon as he saw another shade of pale skin and white hair. A few heavy thumps and slaps could be heard, as well as Suigetsu choking and struggling for air. Kakashi's laughter rang out through the room and Juugo sighed loudly.

Naruto waited for the violent sounds to die down until he felt a finger poke him in the stomach and Sasuke whispered that it was okay for him to uncover his eyes. He peeked through his fingers. On the ground lay an unconscious Suigetsu and Itachi sitting near him in a pair of green trousers, running fingers through his hair. The blond fully removed his hands from his eyes and tugged on his boxers under his towel.

"Sasuke," Itachi called and held out a small knife. "It's time."

Naruto observed as Sasuke trudged over to his brother and sat behind him on the bench, taking the knife and sighing. He grabbed the mane of slightly tangled hair in one hand and observed its length, moving his hand farther down to match his brother's shoulder blades.

A delicate slicing and ripping whispered into the room. Sasuke snorted and gazed at the wet ponytail in his hand before tossing it to the ground and wiping his hands of stray hairs.

The blond stared at the dead hair on the ground before two white feet appeared in front of it.

His eyes burned as he looked up at Kakashi's grinning, _and still masked face, _as he stood there stark naked in all of his manly glory.

Naruto whined.

* * *

Half a mile away, a group of five tracked their scents.

They were quickly closing in to a large school district in the ruins of Konoha, the area completely cleared of Katons.

A female barked out commands as they stood a few neighborhoods away from the school, announcing attack plans as they traveled along roofs of buildings.

"And remember what I said," that female voice intruded into everyone's ears again. "No matter who he's with, _kill them._"

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto stood in a dark alley by the school, keeping guard as Karin showered by herself and Juugo patrolled the area around them.

Sasuke's lips were still upturned at the joke that Naruto had made about Kakashi a while ago. The blond basked in his own self-satisfaction at making the raven laugh for a few moments before he quickly had to hush down in order not to make his brother angry.

They slowly turned down as he remembered his brother's orders and quirked back up for a fraction of a second at his own memory of crossing his fingers as he recited them.

Naruto glanced at his friend. He followed the figure of Juugo as he walked to and fro the school and the alley.

"Hey," he murmured and scooted a bit closer to the shorter boy. "Suigetsu bragged to me about Kusanagi. What happened there?" The blond winced and turned his head to the side at his subtlety. Or lack thereof. He was like a damn bull in a china shop. _Wait to go, _he scolded himself. _Couldn't I have said something like "You know, I heard you had a sword. Where is it?"_ _Now he's just going to ignore me._

Sasuke looked a bit startled when he heard the first consonant of his sword. Black eyes darted to meet blue and quickly looked away. "Well," he started. "About a month ago we made a bet." He paused when Juugo beckoned to them that Karin was almost ready and to start heading back.

When Sasuke didn't continue, Naruto rolled his eyes and walked next to Sasuke. "Aaaaannnnddd?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes back at Naruto and continued the story. "Suigetsu challenged me into who could get more of these," they emerged from the alley and Sasuke ruffled through his pack, pulling out a bottle of pills and rolling them around so that Naruto could see the title. The blond frowned. "I only got a bunch of bottles these size, but Suigetsu got this huge industrial sized bottle. We had Kakashi count them and he only won the bet by two capsules."

Naruto scrunched his brows in confusion when Sasuke handed him the bottle. "What are those for? And who are those for?"

Sasuke sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Well," he grumbled. "I guess it's best that you know anyway." Juugo was standing a few feet away and began to open his mouth to warn the two. "I'm-"

Everything happened in slow motion.

One second, Naruto was about to earn some medical information from Sasuke.

The next, the thick sound of stretching metal and rusted springs filled the air and a thick knife embedded itself deeply through Sasuke's shoulder and emerged from the front of his chest, as well as the sound of skin being torn and blood spilling.

* * *

A/N: Hi readers! I don't know whether to assume that you all hate me or not. I decided that I was spoiling you all too much and since this is the longest chapter yet (5,810 words), I decided to put you down with a cliffie. This chap seriously could have ended at some points, but leading up to this last little scene was a must for the way the next chapter falls. Please review, I'll put some more funnies and cuties in the future chaps if you guys do. Oh, and I don't mean to brag but I just have to get this out - my boyfriend proposed! The other day was our three year ani and he broke that ring out like some of his bad jokes. I'm so, so, so, so incredibly happy and this is just literally so amazing because five or six years ago I would never have even imagined starting a conversation with a guy. -screams- sorry for my ramble and remember: REVIEW! x


	7. Replete

Chapter 6: Replete

* * *

Everything happened in slow motion.

One second, Naruto was about to earn some medical information from Sasuke.

The next, the thick sound of stretching metal and springs filled the air and a thick knife imbedded deeply through Sasuke's shoulder and emerged from the front of his chest.

The launching force was enough to make the raven's knees buckle and send him stumbling forward. First came confusion, such as to why his legs gave out and he suddenly felt so weak.

Second were his senses. Something warm trickled down his stomach and back and his eyes slightly widened. His vision seemed as if everything were moving through molasses and it seemed to take hours for Naruto's blue eyes to widen in horror and his jaw drop open in shock. But his vision of the blond was slowly going away, being replaced by his neck, then his chest…

Third was the pain. Later, Sasuke would have guessed that his blond friend was in too much of a shock to consider his actions. Strong hands were placed on his gored and normal shoulder and scream tore through his larynx and stopped others in their tracks.

Now it seemed like everything was moving in its regular timing and Sasuke fucking _hated _it. A louder scream dried his throat when Naruto shifted his hand on his penetrated shoulder in fear.

Something gargled in his throat and on a regular day he would have assumed it phlegm. He coughed and was mildly surprised when warm, thick liquid trickled down his chin and splattered the front of Naruto's shirt. His vision doubled when he tried to look at his hands but instead caught a glimpse of burgundy slowly soaking his shirt. He gagged at the putrid stench of his own blood but that only resulted in more of it escaping his throat and making it sear.

He coughed harder when the blond wrapped a shaking arm around his side so that his injured shoulder faced away from him. Sasuke desperately tried to clear his airway and he distantly heard his friend's shaking voice yelling louder and louder for their medic. He choked out a modest amount of blood and dragged a wheezing breath into his lungs, half of it immediately escaping in a groan of pain.

_Blood, _he thought to himself. _I'm losing too much blood._

* * *

Naruto barely gave the hooded figure with a bow a glance before he turned his complete attention to his friend.

A small squirt of blood escaped his wound before the raven's head tilted back and he fell forward.

Like in most situations, Naruto didn't think about what he did. He grabbed Sasuke's shoulders, one sopping wet and warm and the other dry and cold, and tried to yank him back up before he fell to the ground.

His eyes nearly watered in primal fear when a gut-wrenching, skin-crawling, and absolutely horrid yell of pain emitted from his friend's lungs. He cursed himself for being so damn clumsy and quickly removed his hand off the boy's left shoulder, wrapping his trembling arm around his torso to that the raven could lean his uninjured shoulder into his side.

After all the times that Kakashi had drilled into him that if someone were to get hurt that he should immediately call out for the rest of the group, his mind was only filled with the wheezes and whooping coughs of his friend and the metallic scent of blood on the both of them.

He whipped his head around and only saw Juugo taking on two cloaked figures hand to hand. _Bandits, _Naruto cursed and slowly shuffled past them. He had a hand clamped over Sasuke's wet mouth and the boy was painfully digging his nails into his bicep. Once he got out of the alley and into the thin street with the school district right across from it, he deemed Sasuke's life over all other matters.

"_Karin!_" he screamed and limped across the dirty street, the raven's coughs having ceased and replaced with heavy breaths and small grunts of pain at each step. "_Kakashi!" _he bellowed.

The silver haired man was engaged in battle with a brown haired boy. Naruto shuffled closer to the fighting men, flexing his ears when he heard the pang of metal against metal. Kakashi ignored Naruto's cries and the blond backed up when a huge white dog viciously growled at the pair. Sasuke lifted his booted foot and kicked the dog in the face, panting and nearly collapsing after he did so.  
"Knock it the fuck off," Naruto tried to growl. No malice was in his tone and it seemed like nearly a statement.

"No," Sasuke growled back.

The dog growled again and barked at both of them. Another black boot shoved it away and its white body was replaced with that of Itachi. The man looked rabid and his face only doubled in its fury when he saw the sheet-white and lucid state of his injured brother.

"What the hell happened?" Itachi shoved the blond away and yanked his brother close to him, wrapping an arm around his head and glaring at him. "Karin!" The man hoisted Sasuke face down and planked into his arms, trying to bring his blood flow to his skull. "Karin!" he hollered again and sprinted into the yard of the school. There Suigetsu was wielding Kusanagi against a form smaller than his own with a simple bloodied machete.

Naruto followed Itachi hot on his heels when the man kicked the school doors open and wound on the balls of his feet to find the gym, the showers, _Karin, _help for Sasuke who was most likely going to bleed out.

There was a steady trail of blood that appeared in front of the blond's boots. He tried not to focus on it when they neared the same double gym doors and burst through them, racing through rubber balls to get to the stairs. When they reached them, Itachi hobbled down them sideways like a madman and Sasuke coughed up a bit more blood when he tried to speak.

They tore through the door of the locker room and were greeted with Karin wrapped in a beige towel as well as a pink one atop her head. She screamed and backed behind a shower curtain. "What the fuck-"

"Sasuke's hurt!" Naruto hoarsely yelled before he could stop himself.

Karin ran to the bench and shoved her glasses on her face before focusing on the glinting blade in the unconscious form of her childhood friend. She froze in shock and her jaw silently worked when Itachi tried to bark commands at her, but soon overpowering her shock and laying down her years of medical experience. "Both of you are idiots," she growled and yanked the towel off her head to fold it thickly and wrap it around Sasuke's wound. "Naruto, lead us to the hospital you saw." She grabbed two more towels for when Sasuke bled through the first one. "Be prepared to give blood." She slammed the shower room door open and ran up the stairs.

"What?" Naruto followed Itachi and furrowed his brows as he took the stairs two at a time.

"I said, _be pr-_"

"I heard you," he snapped. "Why?"

"No," Itachi spat and fixed his grip on his brother's form. "Don't tell him, it'll only weaken us fur-"

"Shut the fuck up," Karin spat back and jogged to the gym doors. "He needs to know if-"

"He _doesn't,_" Itachi hissed and narrowed his eyes dangerously at the blonde.

"Why? Because your brother is already fucking unconscious from blood loss, or do you want him to die?" She growled back and nearly broke a gym door off its hinge. "You know he can help us, so face the fact that the damn secret it out."

"You _will not s_-"

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto interrupted as they broke through the school entrance opposite of the battles that Karin had skipped. Yells were still heard in the distance and a few gunshots echoed dully in the atmosphere.

Karin unfastened a gun from Sasuke's belt and shoved it in his chest. "Cover us as you lead," she mumbled.

Naruto recognized the section of the street and sprinted over remnants of Katons and humans. He could see the gas station he had filled up at in the distance and tried to quicken his steps, hearing the slaps of Karin's bare feet against the cold pavement and the wet thumps of Sasuke's body with its shifting knife.

"What are you not telling me?" Naruto demanded and rounded a corner.

The beginnings of protests from Itachi were cut off by Karin's level voice. "Sasuke's anemic," she stated and shrugged off the physical weight of Itachi's fury. "Do you remember what that means from my books?"

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows as images of blood cells, normally shaped and some shaped like stars filled his mind as well as words like _hemoglobin _and _aplastic _filled his mind. "Um, shortage of blood?"

"Not exactly," Karin explained. "There's different types and I'll give you the backstory later, but Sasuke doesn't have enough iron in his blood to make the oxygen go around. You have an exceptional, healthy blood type that can be donated to any other blood type while Sasuke unfortunately has one that can only be donated to by the same type or yours. Itachi and him have different blood types, even as siblings. From the loss he's suffered now," her voice softened as she glanced at the limp figure of her friend. "And from what he'll be suffering in the future, he'll be losing a ridiculous amount and he'll probably need multiple transfusions."

Naruto recalled the bottle of iron pills that Sasuke had showed him. "Well, if he was taking those pills, why is it still severe as it is?"

"Because," Karin grumbled and lowered her eyes. "In conditions like these, it's impossible to get foods for him that aren't expired and injuries are too common to control."

Naruto glanced behind him and saw the glare Itachi was giving him, though this time muted and filled with one resolute order: _Save my brother._

* * *

Naruto kicked the doors to the large emergency room down and jumped in, gun raised and ready to shoot any other bandits or Katons. Karin rushed behind the secretary counter and ruffled around to emerge with a box of gloves and a bottle of hand sanitizer. "Get him on that gurney," she nodded to the yellow contraption by the front entrance. She whipped her head up to look at the signs hooked to the walls, looking for _Laboratory _and _Surgery._ She spotted them and waved her arm towards the boys, Itachi having already gingerly lowered his brother on his side onto the stretcher and Naruto pulling it.

They ran through cramped hallways with stray papers and biohazard containers and stretchers, torn plastic gloves and gowns scattered on the ground. They turned a corner and reached a set of metal doors with a dead touchscreen pad on it, words plastered above it saying _NO CIVILIANS BEYOND THIS POINT. _Karin froze and growled at the doors. There was a card holder on the side of the pad and a yellow lanyard flashed through his mind back by the entrance doors.

"I think I saw a card by the entrance," he announced and sprinted back through the hallways of the hospital, sweating and thanking Kami that he reached the doors in record time. His eyes darted across the floor until they spotted a mustard yellow lanyard with a shiny plastic cardholder on it. The blond jumped at it and held it in his hands, turning it multiple ways until he could focus on the printed name of the identification card.

There was a metallic blue holographic line on one side of it and the other side held a picture of its owner, department, and specialty. _Dr. Snakes,_ it read with a picture of a pale creepy man with long black hair and beady eyes. His department was radiology, which was past the lab, and his specialty was something called… reconstructive and spiritual surgery?

Naruto shook his head and sprinted back through the hospital to where Karin was trying to kick the door down and Itachi was pressing another towel into his brother's chest. He ran up and punched the touch pad, it flaring to life under his touch and glowing blue. It displayed a picture of a card and Naruto held it up to match with the image displayed on the screen, a holographic blue light coming out and scanning the card before dying again and emitting a loud _ping _that sent the metal doors sliding up.

The room beyond was filled with biohazard signs and yellow warnings of radiation and illustrations of pregnant women and elephantiasis. Karin jumped on the stretcher as soon as she saw the first broken shard of a test tube and they sped through the lab, meeting another metal door that immediately opened at their movement and led into the surgery department. Karin hopped off the gurney and picked up a first aid kit and AED if the time came that she lost Sasuke's heart rate, then a stray pair of needles that she was sure wasn't the right size for a transfusion but would have to suffice anyway.

They jogged down the hall until the redhead took a sharp turn into a large surgery room that appeared to have plentiful supplies and what looked like a refrigerator in the back. There was a red plus sign on it. Naruto looked around in confusion as Itachi and Karin transferred Sasuke's body to the metal operating table and set the gurney next to it. She ran towards a large set of cabinets and yanked them open, searching through green and white packages of long needles that made his eyes widen in fear. She tossed brown packages to Itachi who tore them open and rubbed orange liquid on the inside of Sasuke's elbow. The veins under his skin were now more pronounced than ever.

"You!" Karin called and trotted towards Sasuke, shifting through packages of needles and setting some down that Naruto clearly saw with numbers like 19 and 21 written on them. Kami bless him, those things looked like _knives. _"Get over here!"

When Naruto sat down, she immediately cut through the sleeve of his left arm and a cold toilette was rubbed over the inside of his elbow. Karin had a clean blood bag ready by his side and was connecting a tube to it when Itachi interrupted.

"That's going to take too long," he barked. "Do it directly."

Karin froze and directed her widened eyes to the brunet. "What? Itachi, I've only read about that and it's dan-"

"_Do it."_

Karin paused with a needle poised over the blond's inner elbow. "I can't make that work. We would need-"

Itachi displayed to her a strange metal syringe, her eyes widening at the object. "Where-"

"It doesn't matter," he said and threw the blood bag to the corner of the room. "Now do it."

Karin gave Naruto a wary look and quickly hooked up two tubes to the bottom of the object and gave one needle that the tube opposite of the blond belonged to Itachi.

"Flex your fist," she murmured and twisted a knob on the top of the object. "We insert them on three," she ordered and gave Itachi a glare. "This is serious and not a time for one of your alpha dog games."

Itachi didn't reply and waited for her to start counting.

"One," Karin announced and gave the blond a confident look.

"Two," he put in and gave her a weak grin. She patted his bicep.

"Three." She glided the needle under his skin and into his vein, Naruto making a fish face at the intrusion and squirming around a bit. He definitely felt pressure at the point of entrance, but no sucking or whatsoever. He glanced over at the slowly rising chest of his dark haired friend and wondered how it all came to this.

"I'm going to let him have about half a pint until I remove the knife," the redhead nodded to herself. She probed the area around his gore and scrunched her nose. "His collarbone and shoulder blade are shattered and he'll have severe muscle damage. Need stitches, of course… I'll do my best to realign the fragments, but I don't think they'll heal perfectly without surgery. His spine is fine, too far away from his heart…" she sighed. "He'll have a _lot_ more muscle damage than I'd like to admit. I can't believe this happened to him out of all of us," she pressed her forehead against the operating table and ran her hands though her hair.

Naruto felt a huge wave of guilt crash over his system and clenched his eyes shut. Itachi sighed heavily and unlaced his brother's boots, letting them drop to the floor. He took a pair of medical scissors and cut his brother's thermal shirt up the middle, unwinding it from the knife and cutting it all apart.

"You're going to make him cold," Karin grumbled from inside her arms. "And we haven't even taken out the knife yet."

She rested her chin on her arms and looked up at Itachi. "I'm not strong enough to do it. I can't do it, I can't watch that." She murmured and twirled a lock of her friend's inky hair in her fingers. She pressed her sweaty palms to his cold cheeks and tried to warm his head. "You're going to have to do it."

"Fine," the man clipped and stood tensely in the middle of them.

"This is going to be difficult," Karin sighed. "I'm going to try to stop the bleeding naturally. There's over-the-counter stabilizers here but he's most likely allergic to them. Once you take it out, toss it somewhere and help me put pressure on the wound to stop its bleeding. Once it shows the slightest sign of letting up, I'm stitching him up and injecting painkillers."

Itachi nodded and knitted his fingers together behind his back.

"How do you know he has half a pint?" Naruto softly asked and looked at the ground. Karin shrugged and poked the raven's shoulder.

"I can just tell," she replied.

She took his hand in hers and checked for coldness, rubbing it together in her hands. She stood up and opened a different cabinet, this time holding a bundle of blankets and her nose twitching in irritation as she realized she was still in her bath towel. She set those on Naruto's lap and padded across the room to retrieve more towels and anesthetic.

The blond puckered his lips and stared at his sickly pale friend with drying blood on his chin. He leaned over and picked up a shred of shirt Itachi had cut away, wiping his chin clean and throwing the fabric across the room. Now Sasuke looked somewhat normal, like the gun expert and hard worker that had a knack for being soft spoken but packing a mean punch when he did speak, the one he had befriended and not the injured, frail figure on a metal table. It had only been a few days, but in those few Naruto found a quick-minded companion. He felt ashamed that it took a situation like this to want to know the boy better.

"Okay," Karin whispered and clutched at a towel in her hand. "Take it out."

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and waited for a few seconds before relaxing them after a moment. He was just about to open them when he heard a grunt, a wet sliding sound, a pang of metal and the stretching of skin and the squirting of flesh blood. His lips quivered when he heard Karin gasp and a soft thump of a plush towel.

"Looks like he got most of the bleeding done on the way over here," she grunted and peeked under the towel. "Just a few more minutes."

Karin's stomach felt queasy and her head was hurting with how many thoughts were buzzing through it, but this was Sasuke's life they were messing with. This had to be the most worried and terrified that she had ever been. She didn't know if she could put in the stitches on her friend's destroyed shoulder, didn't know if she could ease the shattered bones back into place and slip his arm in a sling. But she had to… for Sasuke's best chance at healing. She put more pressure on the towel against the raven's shoulder, careful to center her weight and to not rearrange his bones.

Naruto let his eyes inch open to the sight of Karin leaning over Sasuke with most of her weight on her arms and his shoulder, and Itachi frozen in front of the operating table with the knife still in hand. It was a butcher's knife, ironically used to skin pigs and chop their meat up like it had ripped through Sasuke's shoulder. The boy's breathing was labored even in his sleep and Naruto flinched when the needle inside of him shifted when he tried to get a closer look.

"Itachi," she called and shifted from her position. "I need you to control the bleeding while I go get stitching supplies." She clenched her jaw at the thought of anesthesia. There was no time for that, and she would just give the boy the high-tech painkillers that Kami had blessed this age with.

Itachi didn't move his empty eyes off of the butcher. "Now," she added condescendingly and released her grip to run across the room and practically jump inside a cabinet. Her theory worked when she glanced back and bit her lip to hide a triumphant smile.

Naruto craned his neck to where Karin was rummaging through that cabinet like a raccoon, then followed her movements when she ran back and laid what she had in her arms on the metal surface. All the blond caught a glimpse of was clear wire and metal instruments before she yanked Itachi's hands off of his brother's shoulder.

Her hands were nearly blurred and Naruto could only make out the movements of a hooked needle piercing the raven's skin and emerging with a few lines of stitches. She began at his breast and quickly worked her way up, tightly mending skin to skin and the meeting points crusting with dried blood. They rolled Sasuke to his side and the blond kept his gaze locked on the pale face, cheeks now brushed with color and brows furrowed in his sleep. He barely noticed when Karin madly ended her stitches and darted to the side to emerge with a syringe and two bottles, clumsily wiping the used supplies off the table and replacing them. She spun open the top to a brown bottle that had a strange long rubber nipple on it and squirted the substance into and around Sasuke's wound. The boy's breathing caught in his sleep and his eyebrows furrowed further. She picked up a wet toilette and gently patted the stitches to clear it of any dried blood and unrolled gauze. She layered the gore thickly and secured it with weak-looking tape. Itachi picked a folded towel off the ground and set it under his brother's shoulder when they laid him down.

"We should probably get him to an actual room," the redhead grumbled and rinsed her hands with the liquid from the brown bottle. "There I can actually monitor his heart rate and test their blood for compatibility."

Itachi was silent and rested dull eyes on the blond. He slightly dangled his feet off the side of the gurney and offered a weak grin to the man.

"Karin, how much have I given?" he whispered and turned to the girl who was cleansing Sasuke's torso with a wet towel.

"You only have a bit more to go," she answered and abruptly sliced the blond's shirt open.

"Hey-"

"Shush, it's soaked in blood," she discarded the brown garment to the side and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and roughly wiped blotted blood off of Naruto's chest. Karin shakily stood up and took small steps toward the blood bank in the back of the room, praying to Kami that their supplies wasn't biased. She swung the metal door open and exposed nearly black bags of blood, alphabetically ordered and some with names on them. She rifled through them and was thankful to find one bag of B negative, although it was only one. There were no O types in the bank, not even listed as a blood type on the motivational poster stuck inside the door.

She padded back to the boys and turned a knob on the contraption dangling between Sasuke's and Naruto's arms, the bright red stream coming from Naruto and to Sasuke slowly stopping. She removed the tube from Sasuke's side of it and placed it at the knob of the blood bag to place it on Sasuke's stomach. Karin gently removed the needle from Naruto's artery and promised him an orange one day in the future.

"Okay," she brushed off her hands and rested them on the table legs under the raven's head. "Let's roll him to a patient room."

Naruto stood up and registered the ache of his legs and the dryness of his mouth.

Itachi numbly pulled the table through the metal doors of the surgical rooms and they all turned to look for inpatient rooms or hospice sets. Karin backed through the hallway and the blond held the ID up to the scanner again, gently taking the girl in his arms when he recalled all the broken glass in this room. The twin metal door opposite of the one behind them stuttered in its opening and only rose about two feet off the floor.

They all froze when it didn't open any more. He laid questioning eyes on Karin's and she signaled for him to put her down.

"Go get the gurney," she ordered and slipped under the opening.

Without thinking, Naruto sprinted back through the surgery hall and burst into the surgery room with bloodied towels on the floor and leaping at the bright yellow stretcher. He yanked it behind him when he used the ID yet again to open the lab door and rushed towards Itachi.

Karin's hands appeared under the door and her voice sounded muffled through it. "Put Sasuke on the stretcher," she grunted. "And hold the gurney when I lower it so that it won't come crashing down."

When Naruto tried to grab one side of Sasuke's body he was harshly shoved away by Itachi. The man gingerly moved his brother's limp body and half-empty blood bag to the stretcher.

"Alright, hold it." She demanded and pressed a latch above the stretcher's wheels. Only Naruto moved fast enough to set both of his arms under the thin mattress, pressing his face into the raven's tight torso at his weight. He gently lowered it completely to the ground and grunted when he finally did. Geez, Sasuke was _heavy. _

The redhead's greedy hands yanked Sasuke under the door and Naruto crawled under it behind Itachi. He rose and pointed at a sign that read ICU and pointed to their right. They jogged down that dark hall and burst into the first curtained room they saw.

A skeleton with a small amount of rotting meat on it and flies buzzing around it laid on the hospital bed with a breathing tube still around its neck. They immediately backed out and burst into the room opposite of Skully, sighing in relief when they saw the room was in pristine quality. Karin set the stretched next to the blue-sheeted bed and switched the latch that had Sasuke's body slowly rising to the level of the bed. She untucked the sheets and Itachi automatically bundled his little brother in them, reminded of the times when he had passed out from malnutrition as a child and the only thing Itachi could do was tuck him in and hope he would wake up the next morning.

Karin fiddled with a heart monitor by his side and threw it to the white tiled floor when it didn't turn on. She kicked a stale oxygen tank to the side and froze when the sound panged in the air.

"We should go back for the others," Naruto awkwardly cut in just when Karin was about to complete her rage. "Itachi can protect Sasuke."

She glared at the blond and pushed her glasses higher up on the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"You're right."

Itachi turned to him and nodded. "Take Karin with you. I will give you my handgun just for today." He reached behind him and tossed a lacquered black shooter at the blond. "Kill the one who injured my brother."

Naruto weakly nodded and switched the safety off the gun, beckoning Karin to follow him out the hospital doors.

* * *

They were closely scuttling down the road to the school when Suigetsu shot past them and created puffs of dirt with his heels when he tried to stop.

"Hurry, we got 'em!" He yanked their arms and tugged them toward the playground of the school. On the rubber mulch of the structure, Kakashi had planted himself on the same white dog that had tried to attack Naruto and Sasuke just over an hour ago. It was growling and whining under his weight and barked at the blond when he neared. Juugo had his arms securely taut around two flaxen haired girls that were long since out cold. On the ground lay two unconscious men, one with brown hair and red triangles on his cheeks and the other Naruto knew to be the bandit Sasuke had shot when they went looting. Suigetsu had his arm in a chokehold against a squirming young looking boy with a gravity-defying style of hair and a bright green scarf.

"Wake them up," Karin growled in Suigetsu's face. The white haired boy sneered at her and dropped the boy in his arms. The scrambled up from the ground and immediately leaped at Naruto, yelling something incoherent and latching onto his neck. Naruto yelled and tried to twist the boy off his body with no avail, switching the safety off his gun and shoving it into the temple of the boy. Karin violently grabbed the boy and slammed him on the ground with the strength like that of a wrestler and Suigetsu went to work on kicking the rest of their captives awake. She yanked the gun out of his hand and pressed it between his eyes. "_Tell me where your camp is."_

Naruto's eyes flickered when he heard a female groan from Juugo's arms and flickered back to the boy Karin had pinned to the ground. She shoved the gun into his head hard enough to create future bruising. "Tell me where your fucking camp is! I'll destroy it like y-"

She paused when she heard a feminine gasp and immediately let go of the boy to point it at its source.

"Who are you?!" She yelled and knelt in front of the pink haired girl. Karin got in her face and growled viciously enough to spit in the girl's face. "I'll kill your whole camp."

The pink haired girl looked over Karin's shoulder and sobbed. "_Erutow!" _ she wailed and tried to break free from Juugo's grasp. "Naruto!" she screamed a bit more coherently once tears broke free and decorated her cheeks. "Naruto!" She sobbed again and reached her hands out towards the baffled blond. "Na-"

Juugo released her and the pink haired girl automatically clambered up Naruto and clung to him, sobbing in his neck and gripping his bare back. She continued to hoarsely wail his name into his shoulder and the blond lifted a hand to awkwardly pat the girl on her back, absolutely clueless as to what was going on. He cringed when he heard another sob from another female throat but was slightly (completely) petrified at the sight of a rabid blonde girl nearly foaming at the mouth and desperately trying to beat up Juugo.

The brown haired man also woke up from the ruckus and shot up when he saw Naruto, leaping towards him but was stopped when Karin harshly punched him in the jaw and sent him tumbling back towards the ground. Her anger had returned in full force to replace the pity she had felt for the crying girl.

"Which one of you stabbed Sasuke!" she screamed and pointed the revolver at the blonde girl, the tattooed man and shifted it to the young boy. She continuously shifted it to all of them, impatiently waiting for an answer. "If you don't answer me, all of you will die!"

The blonde girl looked up and sneered at Karin. "I didn't stab him," she said with a level voice. "I just loaded a crossbow with a knife and shot it at some man."

The redhead slid to her knees and pressed the gun barrel inside the girl's left ear. "_Why," _she growled hoarsely. "We have plenty of-"

"I know what you have," the girl snapped and shrugged the gun out of her ear. "We came here for Naruto."

Said boy was silent when he noticed that none of their faces made his mind itch. "How do you know my name?" He cautiously asked and gently pushed the pink haired girl away from him.

"We mean no harm," the girl announced with an air of great authority. "We just-"

"You've caused harm," Karin shoved the girl away from Juugo and planted her foot in her stomach. "You've caused _severe _harm. You're going to pay for-"

"Karin," Naruto held up his hands, greatly disturbed with the amount of violence Karin was displaying.

The pink haired girl wiped her face and stood her ground, looking considerably stronger than she had sobbing into his neck. "I'm gravely sorry for what harm Ino has caused," she started and made eye contact with the opposing group. "This situation could have been avoided by approaching you lot in a friendly manner and asking you to return Naruto to us. This-"

"What?" Naruto interrupted. "'Return to us'? I don't think-"

"Naruto doesn't belong to you," Suigetsu cut in and bared Kusanagi. Naruto's heart clenched at the sight of it and wanted to convince giving it back to Sasuke.

The pink haired girl tilted her head and offered a gentle smile. "Well, it's obvious he's being held captive-"

"Captive?" Suigetsu spat in front of her feet. "Sure as hell ain't being held captive. Wouldn't the fucker already'a run away if he was bein' held _captive?" _The word rolled off his tongue sourly. "And don't get sly with me, you bitch."

Naruto cringed at the name calling and tried to intervene, but the girl appeared five times larger than she actually was with her confidence.

"Yes, captive," she spat and wrapped an iron-like grip around Naruto's arm. "You lot stole him from us-"

"There was no stealing going on around here." Karin stood up and dropped the gun to the ground. "A member of our group found Naruto injured and alone, fallen off a two story building. It sure seems like you _left _him. We took him in and I diagnosed him with a severe concussion and amnesia."

The girl was silent and she made eye contact with Naruto. She was about the same size as Karin and they both seemed to have fierce personalities and strong wills.

"I'm Sakura," she suddenly said and turned to Naruto like she expected him to remember something. He felt nothing except learning something new. Sakura nodded her head at the boy with the green scarf. "We're not a violent group, I promise. That's Konohamaru, he's thirteen. I'm sorry if this came too far than it needed, but the only thing I can offer in apology is the top doctor of Konoha."

Karin said nothing and nodded to Suigetsu. He sheathed Kusanagi and leant against a pillar of the playground.

"That's Ino," Sakura nodded at the blonde girl. "He's Kiba and that's his tracker dog, Akamaru." She pointed at the red-cheeked boy and gave Kakashi a gentle look, asking him to get off of Akamaru. The man did and the dog whined and stretched before barreling over to Kiba. She helped the long haired man to his feet and he didn't regard any of them. "This is Neji, and we have plenty more members as the group Naruto was with."

Naruto opened his mouth to introduce himself but snapped it shut when he remembered that they already knew him. Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo introduced themselves. Karin explained the results of Ino's actions and Sasuke's medical condition. Sakura nodded along and offered her hand as she was the same blood type as the boy, but Karin stated that it was fine and he already received some from Naruto.

Ino scoffed and crossed her arms in the background of the conversation. Out of all the times she finally took charge, she did something wrong.

"I'll send a message to our group that we found him and for Tsunade to come prepared." Sakura smiled and set her gaze on Naruto. "Do you mind if I have a look at this Sasuke?"

Naruto hesitated but nodded and beckoned to the direction of the hospital.

* * *

A/N: Wow, last chapter was a cliffie and you guys only gave me 2 reviews from it. -growls- But I hope you guys like this chapter even though it's a really awkward phase in the story. Do you trust the Konoha group? Just because they're good in canon doesn't mean they'll be the good guys in my fic. -winks-


	8. Walking on Ice

Chapter 7: Walking on Ice

* * *

When the whole group reached the hospital, Naruto dug Dr. Snakes' identification card from his pocket and thrust it in front of the lab scanner. The doors slid open to another view of hopelessly shattered glass. He clumsily gathered Karin in his arms and she flailed and batted at his head a bit through the whole walk through the lab. When he set her down, Karin quickly jogged to the U turn of the hospital that led to its patient rooms, her feet slapping loudly on the hospital's marble floor.

Naruto shied away from Skully's room and gently knocked on Sasuke's wooden door, pushing it open when a grunt was heard from inside.

Before his eyes even adjusted to the brightness of the room, the cocking of a gun and the pang of a knife was heard. His eyes got used to fluorescent light and Itachi stood protectively in front of his brother with a sleek handgun in his left hand and the same knife Sasuke had been stabbed with behind him in his right. The man growled and shoved the chair he had been sitting in out of the way, tensing up and setting himself in an offensive position.

"Itachi, it's okay, these are the p-" Karin tried to interlude but she was quickly interrupted by the brunet.

"Which one of you shot this knife," he spat at all of them and tossed the gun to the side so hard that it bounced off the wall and skidded under the bed. He switched his feet and bared the blade with a tight grip and glared at all of them. "Tell me right now or all of you die slowly."

Ino scoffed and removed the hood off of her blonde head, crossing her arms and jutting an eyebrow at the man. "It was me. Why the hell are you people making such a big-"

Before anyone could tell that he even moved, Itachi had Ino pinned to the wall with the butcher's knife over the exact same spot that his brother had been stabbed in.

The room was silent and Ino clenched her jaw when the man dug the blade hard enough into her that her cloak ripped and the cool metal kissed her skin.

"An eye for an eye, am I correct?" Itachi hissed and tickled the blade along her skin, some tendrils of his hair escaping over his shoulder and brushing her forehead. "Maybe you don't understand the _seriousness_ of this situation, the _critical condition_ of my brother. Maybe I'll just stab you like you did to him and leave you to bleed outside like a whore."

Kiba shoved the brunet away from Ino and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "Back the fuck off, man, we already apo-"

"Apologies don't fix anything!" Itachi yelled and struck him in the jaw. "I am above all of you. Every single one of you will treat me with respect. You are under my hostage and I will-"

"Itachi, stop," Naruto cut in and held up a hand. "They've got the best doctor that was in Konoha in their group, and they're offering that as an apology for Sasuke." He glanced over to the boy whose blood bag was empty and looked slightly more normal.

"'Hell's wrong with 'er lot," Konohamaru slurred his piece and chewed on a piece of gum. "'S like you got-" Akamaru bit him in the ankle and the boy immediately shut up and nearly pissed himself when Itachi turned that glare on him.

"How the hell do you believe these fuckers?" Itachi paced in front of all of them and snarled at a weak looking pink-haired girl. "And what did they want in the first damn place?" He flicked the knife at the white dog and it whimpered at the glimmer of it in the room lights.

"Well," Naruto slumped his shoulders a bit and up righted the chair Itachi had kicked earlier to rest next to his friend. "Sakura here said I was a part of their group, before I got the amnesia."

"Dumbass," Itachi laughed emptily and picked up his gun to switch the safety off and point it at Sakura. "How the hell do you know they just haven't been tracking us and gathering our information?"

"I have," Ino gazed out the room window in a bored manner. "But I can bring up information and old photos of Naruto to prove that he was, especially stories from Jiraiya."

Naruto frowned at the name and Kakashi's silver eyebrows shot into the sky. "Itachi, lower your gun. These are good people." Kakashi looked less amused when he didn't. "Now."

Itachi huffed and flicked the safety on, but still stood in front of his brother in a protective gesture. Naruto idly poked at Sasuke's warm and bare shoulder.

Kakashi stuffed his hands in his pockets and set his dominating gaze on the Konoha group. "Jiraiya and I have been friends for a long time," he drawled and patted Ino on top of the head. "I know he probably put you up to his. Isn't any place for a kid."

Ino pursed her lips but relaxed at his casual aura. "I'm sorry it came to this," she glanced at a figure blocked by Itachi but she could tell Naruto was fiddling with it somehow. "We thought Naruto was taken hostage."

"Understandable," Kakashi quipped and shifted his weight. "But doesn't explain why you couldn't have taken a friendlier approach. We're all just trying to survive here, aren't we?"

Ino grumbled something along the lines of how she hadn't thought of it and the camp just wanted the blond back. "After this, we'll take Naruto in our greatest apologies and I hope we can move onto this."

"That doesn't seem to be acceptable," Kakashi smiled and leant down into her face. "We aren't just letting him go like that, and I'm sure he doesn't want to leave like that. He's made friends, right, Naru?"

Naruto ceased his poking of Sasuke's soft skin and rolled the fact around in his brain. He nodded and crossed his ankles, leaning back into the chair and sighing at the drama he knew was about to ensue.

"And I'm sure you'll have Tsunade and the rest of your group here by nightfall." The silver haired man added. "We want Sasuke awake by tomorrow."

Ino's eyes widened when she took in the information that this man actually did know Jiraiya and his childhood friend, Tsunade. She viewed Kakashi in a new light and merely nodded.

"Sakura and I would like to have a look at the member of your group, if you wouldn't mind," she slipped off her cloak and stood in khaki pants and a light green tunic. "We're both medics."

"Ah," Kakashi leant back from her face and sighed pleasantly. "So is our Karin. Won't you girls get along?"

Sakura offered a small smile to the redhead and jerkily headed towards the bed, nodding to Itachi but he never gave up the intensity of his glare.

She looked at the boy's face and blushed prettily at how handsome he was. She lifted the blanket to his waist and folded it, immediately getting distracted and grimacing at his injury. She felt along his collarbone and gently turned him on his side to feel his unfortunately shattered shoulder blade.

"You have very nice stitching skills," Sakura murmured absently in appraisal to the skin drawn perfectly together. "I'm going to realign his collarbone further," she announced and set two fingers on the thin bone, tucking its broken discs tighter together. She grimaced when she caught sight of his heavily bruised shoulder and didn't set a finger on it. "I suggest we power up an x-ray machine." She made eye contact with Karin and Kakashi.

"What I thought," Karin grumbled and crossed her arms. "You think he'll need surgery to correct it?"

Sakura quickly shook her head. "He'll just have difficulty rotating it when it's completely healed; I just want to check for missing pieces that might have been taken out with the knife."

Ino shook her head from the foot of the bed. "That's going to take a while to heal," she griped.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Itachi spat.

Ino only sighed and ignored the tall man. She peeked around him and was immediately enraptured with the big hunk of handsome that Naruto was drooling on.

Before she could lunge at him, Kakashi cleared his throat. "Why don't we get him that x-ray while you bring your group here?" he suggested and smiled.

The blonde grumbled under her breath and trudged outside.

* * *

Sakura, Kiba and his dog had proved to be enjoyable and resourceful company. Kiba was willing to fetch certain medical supplies they needed and Sakura lent her helping medical hand.

She politely explained the x-ray to Itachi who had no reaction whatsoever. He only nodded when she told him that his brother was going to be perfectly fine. Sakura sent him a wary look when the man seemed to completely relax (or, as relaxed as an uptight being like him could be) and leaned shadily against the wall. Something about him wasn't right, she thought to herself and frowned.

Naruto had been napping all over the place every time they switched places in the hospital. Karin had explained that the boy had given two and a half pints of blood to Sasuke, who looked smug about healthy blood running through his veins even as he slept. His skin was back to its healthy ivory that Karin could only remember from their toddling days, not the pasty sheet white it had been for years. Karin griped about it to Juugo who only smiled and chuckled a bit, giving his small friend a rough pat on the shoulder that nearly sent her flying across the room.

Suigetsu hadn't said a word in a while once he saw how pale Sasuke had used to be and the horrid x-ray of his shoulder. He glanced at the straight stitches running on his breast and over his shoulder and wished for his gallon bottle of water. He swallowed roughly. The white haired boy grimly slipped Kusanagi from his belt loops with a quiet zip and laid it by Sasuke's side on his bed. Maybe it would help protect Sasuke from injuries like these again in the future, he hoped. Perhaps he wouldn't have gotten this hurt if Suigetsu had just given up the damn thing and been fair in his bet.

A few hours slugged by and Naruto only roused from his sleep once to use the restroom. He wrapped a blanket around himself and butted his head into Sasuke's side, pursing his lips into the mattress. He gently snored when sleep reclaimed him.

Sakura stood behind the pair and reached forward to gently run her fingers through soft blond hair. She had missed Naruto's glowing presence, his subtly perverted comments, and his immature sense of humor. But beyond that, she knew Naruto was aged well past his actual years with the deaths of his original group. She weakly smiled when he practically purred and nuzzled against Sasuke's side, causing the boy to snort in his sleep and inch away and Naruto to snort back and creep closer. His snores rose to a crescendo in volume until Sakura's nose twitched and she shifted his jaw for him, silencing them.

She watched the duo for a few more moments and giggled when Sasuke appeared to reach out for something in his dreams, but his arm going lax and smacking Naruto in the face with his elbow. The blond awoke with a start and his head darted from side to side, eyes unfocused and the side of his mouth wet with drool. He rested his lazy gaze on Sakura, slumping over his chair and playing dead. "I'm hungry!" He whined.

She caught herself rolling her eyes. "You're going to have to wait for food," she scolded, but her face softened considerably when she saw he had already fallen asleep in his sprawled position.

Her delicate features hardened once again once she considered the circumstances of this situation. From what she had learned, Naruto had hit his head so hard that he seemed to have some sort of permanent amnesia. According to Karin he had recalled significantly little information of his life before the group he had been… adopted by. Even if there was information that he could call up with reminders like Itachi's gun, most of them were gone, dead, extinct, whatever she'd like to call it. It wasn't like she could recreate Konoha and bring his past group back to life to make him remember, and force on him some tragic moments.

In their childhood days at Konoha, when Naruto lived in the partial ghetto with the rest of the town orphans, his closest companions had been the group of nine Jinchuuriki that took him under their wing. When the Sectors had been divided and Danzo had tried to eliminate the younger generations, he had made promise with Tsunade that he would spend a certain amount of time with the nine and then migrate to their group, like a cycle. It had been unfortunate that the Jinchuuriki had accidentally crossed into a secured portion of Two and had been murdered by Katons and scouts. Concluded from what the shady entity Gaara had told them, anyway.

But in the end, on well terms or not, Naruto would be returning to his rightful group. It would be a clearly helpful decision for his memory if he were back in a familiar environment and not with an unstable, small group like Kakashi's. In this world, it was quantity, not quality, of which the silver haired man's group was three-sixths fighting material and five percent healing material. Tsunade's group was standing steady with thirteen people of four medics and a dog, all of them ready for battle.

She was jarred out of her unfair thoughts when Itachi slipped through the room door. He regarded her with a cool gaze before hovering over his brother again, tucking a glossy lock of cold toned hair behind his ear. The man gingerly touched Sasuke's collarbone, slightly grimacing when he felt the sharp lumps and soft empty spaces in the area one would usually feel smooth bone. It was bruising yellow and would be near black by the next day. Itachi wondered when his brother would be healed to his best composition and didn't notice when he spoke the question out loud.

"Six weeks," Sakura murmured and schooled her face. "It's a wonder why his muscle wasn't torn…"

Itachi's handsome face flicked to her for but a second and he rested thin fingers on rough stitches. "How will you treat him when he wakes up? Wouldn't a sling-"

Sakura chuckled when she thought about the sling Sasuke would need. "He's going to look pretty ridiculous for a while. He'll need a different type of sling – a cuff sling – it supports like a necklace and holds his wrist like a cuff. It won't hurt his collarbone and will set his shoulder for healing. I'm sure that if we can get our hands on our own group's _correct _equipment, his healing time would be shortened more than two times."

The brunet glared at the girl when she interrupted him. Bold one, even more so at the moment than Karin. But at least Karin respected his superiority. At least Karin had common sense to talk shit behind his back and not to his face. This Sakura girl gave him the impression that she thought she was higher than him, more intelligent. What made such a group like hers that was made of idiots stronger than his own? Well, he had one thought for that: No. And this behavior, her unspoken thoughts would stop soon. He rose to his full height and squared his shoulders, narrowing his eyes and stepping closer to her.

"Do not look or speak to me as if I am below you. I know as a fact that, now and in the end, I am stronger than you in all aspects. You will regard me as your elder, superior, and temporary leader, child. Doing things like inter-"

"My apologies for the misunderstanding, _Uchiha,_" Sakura met eyes with the towering, devilishly handsome man and clenched her fists. "I'm sorry to break it to you that I am _not _a member of your small group and I have no written rules to recognize you as what you just asked me to. It's you that-"

"Weak female," the man spat and appeared in front of her to be stories taller than her, a building made of obsidian and cold black, empty and destroyed.

"I'm not weak in any way," she countered just as snippily and tilted her head towards the hospital bed, keeping her eyes glued to narrow ones. "But _baby brother_ seems to be perfectly vulnerable."

"It only makes sense to target the weakest one in the room," Itachi loomed over her once again. "as a woman."

"For how much you talked about being superior to me, you sure are fixed on your immature sexist insults."

They both started when a deep voice grumbled from the right. "Itachi, stop taking your anger out on the girls."

When they had been arguing, Sakura and Itachi hadn't noticed when Sasuke had jerked awake and sat up in the bed on his own. His mouth tasted like blood and acid and dirt and he wanted to do nothing more than brush his teeth at the moment, and perhaps take another shower. His arm was numb, the medically induced kind of numb, and he could barely feel the characteristic tightness of Karin's stitches in his shoulder. Naruto let out a few ridiculously loud snores to his left. Sasuke curled his lip and reached behind his back with his right arm, grasping the thick pillow in his arm and hurling it at the blond's head.

It startled the blond so much that his chair knocked over backwards and he fumbled around to right himself. When he finally opened his heavy eyes, it was to the sight of Sakura and Itachi having a staring contest and Sasuke giving him an irritated look with his left arm resting limply on his lap.

"Hey!" he called out to Sasuke and righted the wooden chair, sprawling in it once again. "Does your arm hurt?"

He saw an unidentified emotion flicker in black eyes and falter a firm look. He nearly frowned before Sasuke answered.

"No," he turned his head to look down at his significantly bruised collarbone and stitched shoulder. "No, it just feels weird. Doesn't hurt."

"Can I… touch it?" Sasuke looked up to be met with shockingly close blue eyes and a curious face. He thought about how he had only seen water as blue as Naruto's eyes in picture books and paintings and thickly gulped to nod his approval.

The blond held their eye contact for another moment, then directed his attention lower to bruised skin. He carefully reached out with his hand and poked at Sasuke's collarbone, watching the boy watch him watching him. The raven was regarding him out of the corner of his eye and gave him a single nod. He smiled a little and applied a bit more pressure, inwardly wincing at shattered bone. He poked his way up a pale shoulder and skirted around delicate stitches to the swollen area of the raven's back.

"What did it feel like?" Naruto leaned back, but enough to be considered leaning forward in his seat. Sasuke idly scratched at his inner elbow and frowned.

"It was cold. The knife, I mean. I guess that's what hurt the most about it, because it felt like it was practically frozen. I felt my collarbone break," Sasuke pursed his lips and tilted his head towards him. "Like the crunch of breaking a branch."

Naruto made a baffled noise and such a face at his morbidity that Sasuke snorted and bit his lip a bit.

In a way, Naruto caring about how he felt was… different. Sasuke knew that Itachi would worry about him in situations like these only when he was injured and up until about the point when someone would tell him how long it would take Sasuke to heal. Then his brother brushed him off and expected him to be back in shape practically right after he took his first few steps out of the hospice bed. Then it would be back to looting, growing, hunting, working, travelling, never resting and always on the tips of their toes and sleeping their little hours with one eye open. There was a physical fatigue that Sasuke would sometimes feel, but a different fatigue, a mental sluggishness and dreary mindset that would haunt his mind would set in when things got too busy like this because he knew in the end, they were running towards a false haven, an empty golden pot, wasting medical supplies on him in run down deserted towns. Exiles. Exiles was what they were. Eliminated from their Sectors because they were deemed useless or troublesome. Maybe, in a different universe, they would have had a better chance at surviving. Instead of one where it was survival of the fittest and certain people were deemed too slow, too much trouble.

His mind set back to when he was six, when he and Itachi's parents had been travelling with them for three days after the cleaning of Oto. Three days was all it took for Itachi to deem their parents too slow, too old, too demanding, and drown them both in a lake. Sasuke wished there was a world where people respected each other as equals and were united under one another, living peacefully as they did like when he was a toddler.

Maybe, in a different world, there would be enough time for things boys his age used to fret over and to relax. He read in tattered books that they liked sports, and girls. Was that it? Maybe they liked bugs? He didn't even know anymore. Sasuke could see no time to fit something like a girl in his life. Karin had already wiggled herself into most of his time, anyway, and Sasuke barely even recognized her as a girl except for when he caught accidental glimpses of her cleavage. Karin was as strong as the rest of them, perhaps even more so headstrong than Itachi. He admired her for that, but never in a romantic way.

He was freed from his thoughts when the hospital room door was firmly knocked on, then shoved open hard enough to make it slam against the wall and shut again. Sasuke tensed and glanced at Naruto, then to Itachi and Sakura, who were both staring at the door that looked like it hadn't even been disturbed. The door opened in a gentle manner this time, a dark-haired girl with nearly white eyes stepping in and offering the people in the room a smile.

"Hinata!" Sakura scuttled over to the girl and attached herself to her by the hip. Hinata nodded and whispered something in her ear.

Akamaru trotted in and nearly knocked Hinata over with an affectionate lick then bound over to Naruto and rested his head on the blond's lap. Naruto grinned and pet the dog on his huge head, chuckling when the dog seemed to smile and slobber all over his chair.

Two boys with questionable presences practically slithered in, one with a trench coat and sunglasses and the other who planted himself behind Hinata and regarding nobody else but her in the room. The boy with the trench coat nodded at Sasuke and faltered in a familiar gesture towards the blond when he realized the boy was looking at him like someone new.

The next amount of people that poured in made Sasuke uncomfortable. There had to be almost twenty people staring him and Naruto down now, and he turned to the blond to get the burns on his neck of being watched to go away. It seemed like Naruto had the same goal, the both of them equally as new to these people. Sasuke looked for recognition in Naruto's eyes and was slightly… appreciative? Slightly appreciative to find none. Naruto gently poked him in the side through his blankets.

The door barreled open once again and a blonde woman and a man with long white hair stormed in. They immediately stalked towards Naruto and startled Sasuke a bit with their serious faces and tense postures. Were these people spies to evict them to a Sector and be eliminated? He set his hand on the blond's shoulder and shifted, trying to warn him-

And was startled even further when the woman practically hurled herself at Naruto, gathered him in her arms and pressed him into her large bosom. Naruto flailed his arms a bit and tried to push her away, shoving at her stomach and groaning for help.

"I can't breathe!" He whined, muffled.

The man with long hair and warts on his face chuckled. "We looked for you high and low, idiot."

The blond finally freed himself from the confines of overly large breasts and turned to the man beside him. "What? Who are you?" He looked between the two, then pivoted to the other people in the hospital room. Sasuke looked a bit constipated with irritation at how his room was flooded with people he didn't know.

The man's mouth remained open in pause from what he was about to say and then shut, a grim look overtaking his face and crossing his beefy arms. "It's true, isn't it?" he said under his breath. "You really can't remember even long term memories."

He looked for the hearty red head of hair that he trusted most with his medical problems. Karin wasn't in the room and the closest thing he found to her was the pink haired girl, Sakura.

"Um," his voice was awkwardly wavering. "Just bits and pieces, but for the most part, no, I can't."

The woman with blonde pigtails shook her head. "I was hoping you'd have regained your memory," she drew out and clasped her hands in front of her mouth. "You had a lot of memories, Naruto. Ones I'm sure that you'd want to forget, and ones I'm sure that you used to never want to. But, it has only been a week and a half since you've been missing from us and you still have a window of memory open." She set her hand on his head and ruffled his hair. "Now, that's not what I came here for. Came here to fix what Ino fucked up," she smirked at the girl hiding in the corner of the room.

The woman approached Sasuke and he flinched when she pressed the back of her hand against his forehead and rubbed his cheeks. She pressed her pointer and middle fingers to the pulse in his neck and rubbed the joint of his jaw with her thumbs a bit to relax it.

"Ah, Sasuke," she set a hand over stitches that he couldn't tell were cold. "I've heard about you from Kakashi. I'm Tsunade, and I was the lead doctor here in Konoha before it was destroyed. Can you tell me who took care of your wounds?"

Sasuke tugged his head away from her hand and paused. "Karin," he told her. "Where is she?"

"She went to get clothes for herself and you," Kakashi peeked into the doorway and smiled a bit. "Good to see you bright eyed and bushy tailed, Sasuke."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the raven and rubbed at his collarbone. "You can trust me," she murmured under her breath just so only he could hear. "What's your blood type?" She abruptly said in her regular voice.

Sasuke cast a glance at the other people in the room and then back at Tsunade. She looked over her shoulder and nodded to Jiraiya, who yelled something about nothing for there to be heard and to get something to eat and herded the people out the door. All who were left were Itachi, Kakashi, Tsunade, and Naruto.

"B negative," he stated and idly scratched the back of his neck. That and his back ached and itched at the same time, his telltale signs that he had had a transfusion. He knew they would escalate soon now that he had woken up.

"Figures you would be unlucky enough to have that type in this world," she shook her head. "Would have been a blessing if you were AB. They can receive from all blood types."

"Okay," Sasuke said and felt slightly uncomfortable with the look she was giving him, like she was inspecting him.

Tsunade stared at him with piercing honey eyes before letting out a loud snort and performing multiple actions on his numb arm. She poked in places that made it bend and his fingers flex, and a certain spot by his shoulder that made it go up. The woman poked at his collarbone and shoulder blade before humming neutrally and rummaging through her pockets.

"Got what you need," she grunted and produced a transparent purple ointment from her pocket. "State of the art bone marrow cream from Oto. If you let me use this on you, your bones will be healed in a week. If you don't, you'll look like an idiot for over a month in a neck sling." She held up a contraption with two loops for his viewing.

"How do we know that's not poison?" Itachi cut in and strode to their side of the bed. "Try it on yourself first."

She snorted again and twisted the cap open on the bottle, dabbing it slightly on the back of her hand and waiting a few moments for the purple hue to sparkle and dissolve. She handed the bottle to Itachi for him to inspect and boredly rested her chin in her hand.

"Am I dead?" She quipped and patted Sasuke's thigh. "It'll be better for you to have this, anyway. It'll get you back to normal faster, and it'll be useful on the go."

Itachi flared his nostrils and handed the tube back to Tsunade. Sasuke tilted his head to the side to bare his throat and winced when she rubbed the cold ointment on his skin. It burned for a few moments at first, but then it hardened like stone and he felt the sensation of creeping roots invading his veins when it dissolved and gave an innocent sparkle. She patted more of it on his shoulder blade and he pushed himself through the strange steps of it setting in.

"Did you steal it from Oto?" Sasuke wondered and winced when she applied another coat.

"Kami, hell no," Tsunade barked out a laugh and patted him roughly on his back. "We had a member of our camp that was a spy from Oto. When we killed him, we took his medical supplies."

Silence breached the room and she suddenly pulled the bag under his eye down, peeked into his eye and let go before Sasuke had time to react. She touched his hands and clamped her thumb just before the beginning of his inner elbow. Then she clamped her hands over his ears and bent to rub at his feet. Sasuke felt like an experiment rat, with all the poking and prodding he was undergoing.

"Anemia's gotten better," she smiled and changed Sasuke's bandages. He blanched and furrowed his eyebrows. Better? He thought it would have been at its all-time low.

The door creaked open and Karin padded in, clothing in her arms and sniffling a bit. She shrugged her lenses further up her nose. "You can thank Naruto for that," she griped and sounded congested, trudging over to Naruto and handing him a thick orange sweater. "I gave you a direct transfusion with a syringe Itachi pulled out of nowhere." She sat down on his bed and handed him an oversized fleece fourth-zip. "Figured you'd fit into that easier with your cast," she rasped and coughed into her elbow.

"Are you sick?" Sasuke couldn't believe it. Karin, the girl who got skittish even when Juugo sneezed, had caught a cold?

"Well, if you damn idiots hadn't made me run around in a fucking towel maybe I wouldn't be!"

"Direct transfusion?" he recalled, "What the hell is that?"

The redhead rubbed her eyes and nodded at Naruto, stealing Sasuke's pillow and burying her face in it. Naruto smiled at Sasuke and pointed at his arm.

"Well, Itachi had this thing Karin called a double sided syringe, and it basically sent my blood to you. 'Cause, you know, I have O, and you have B, and O can be given to anybody…" he lamely finished and tapped his fingers together, searching for a better grand finale. "I gave you some of my awesome blood, two and a half pints." He flexed his biceps and grinned.

"You did?" Sasuke said disbelievingly and sat up a bit straighter. A stable iron count? Could he finally go over ten miles from their camp without practically having an asthma attack? Could he sleep better, sleep more, sleep less at unnecessary times? Would his feet be warm now with better circulation? He glanced at the obvious needle puncture at the inside of his elbow. _Naruto would do that? Well, he would, and he has. Kami…_

Tsunade interrupted his thoughts by chuckling and ruffling his hair. "Slow down, bugger," She lifted the blankets and Sasuke crossed his legs once they were hit by the coldness of the room. Some point in when he had been unconscious, Itachi had probably changed him into the grey sweatpants he was wearing now. "Let's get you in that cast."

Sasuke nodded and dragged his legs to the edge of the bed. He was barefooted and he idly wondered what happened to his shoes. The raven set his feet on the ground and stood up, but immediately regretting it and scowling when they reacted to the coldness of the tile floor and he balanced himself on the outside of his feet.

"Bah, hang your shoulder over. Loosen it," Tsunade patted his arm and held his wrist to his stomach. "Hold your wrist there with your other hand and relax it," she set a hand on his shoulder and shoved him out the door. Naruto and Itachi followed him, Tsunade shutting the room door and leading them down the hallway into a main lobby. Whether that was his blood on the tiled ground he rather wouldn't know.

Itachi strolled along at his side and Sasuke found himself more irritated than he should have been by it. "I lost your shoes," he said dismissively. The raven only sent his brother a glance. It was always like this, and it would always _be_ like this – Itachi deeming him completely okay to do anything once he was awake and not dead. It was like the man was always taking a chance when his younger brother got hurt and he always got worked up during the injury, but after, it was like he didn't care in the first place. Actually, Sasuke was convinced that his brother didn't fucking care at all, like back at camp. Like when he told Sasuke he would let him die if he didn't find iron supplements on his own. Like when he told him he wasn't allowed to make a new friend. His body temperature was rising and Sasuke snapped himself out of his angst and walked ahead of Itachi.

He walked with light steps behind the woman who probably worked in this hospital. She led them through a forked hallway, thankfully carpeted, and approached a set of military grade metal doors with a card scanner on them. Naruto held up a card and the door slowly raised open, revealing what seemed to be a destroyed lab with shattered glass on the ground and areas burnt on the ground from certain chemicals. Sasuke hesitated and his bare foot hovered over the tile floor. There was shards of glass literally everywhere, and-

He didn't feel that startled when Naruto put an arm behind his knees and hoisted him into tan arms, so that his right shoulder was pressing into his chest and Itachi looked like a severely abused and angry cat. The blond wrapped an arm around his stomach and grunted a bit. "God damn, why are you so heavy when you don't look it?" he complained and crunched through broken glass.

Sasuke ignored him in favor of staring at burnt glass bottles with names and numbers on them. There was a dead snake in the corner of the room as well as a bottle of some white liquid. He noticed some untouched, pristine bottles lined in perfect rows.

He winced when Naruto set him down back onto the cold floor, the warmth in his back leaving him and being replaced by stress. He followed Tsunade when she turned to the side into a large supply room and pulled out three of the same contraptions she had showed him earlier and inspecting their information.

She unwrapped one and set a sling over his head, a stiff plastic rod coming down to his stomach and ending in a wrist cuff. She guided his hand into it and made slight adjustments before leading him out of the room.

"Don't try to change shirts by yourself, don't put your arm through a sleeve, don't take the damn sling off, don't do anything besides put a shirt on from this point on, you brat." She turned down the hallway opposite from the lab.

Itachi was reminded of the fourth-zip Karin had given Sasuke, and immediately held it out for his brother. He poked his head through and shrugged his right arm into the sleeve, keeping his left arm uncomfortably slung inside the fleece.

Tsunade pulled a card out of her pocket to unlock a different set of doors that held what seemed like miles of file cabinets and led their team through there, stepping on loose sheets of handwritten papers. They came to another set of doors that automatically opened and veered off into the right, a large glass window to their left with flickering lights and rows of empty incubators with moth-eaten pink and blue blankets still resting inside of them. Some of the incubators were slightly crooked in their row and some were boldly knocked over, empty baby bottles littered everywhere as well as diapers and rubber nipples.

Naruto eyed the scene with sadness and turned away before he could dwell on what happened to those babies.

The woman led them to another set of open double doors that appeared to be the hospital's food court, with dirty blue tiles and walls and circular white tables with benches. The people from earlier and Suigetsu and Juugo congregated and laughing at a story the man with long hair was boasting about. They all silenced and turned at heavy footsteps, and most of the people turned their eyes to a familiar whiskered face that could only do nothing but ask them to introduce themselves.

Jiraiya stood before the group and clamped a hand down on Sasuke's and Naruto's shoulders, Sasuke immediately slapping his arm away when he felt a bolt of pain shoot up his bones.

"Sorry, kiddo," he patted his head and turned his large body to him. "And a greater, more formal apology about this incident that's left you severely injured."

Sasuke said nothing and set his burning obsidian eyes on Ino, who looked much too pampered to be living in the wild with her long neat ponytail and unmarred skin. She herself regarded him with a bit of excitement, with his handsome face and delicious color scheme… but then he reminded her a bit of Sai, with his fake smile and passive-perverted slash intrusive jokes and questions.

"So," the man announced and stood in the middle of the large group, "we've got matters we need to discuss."

Kakashi appeared out of nowhere and pretended to blow smoke off of his pretend finger guns, setting them on his hips and squinting his eyes. "I believe we do."

"Let's get to the point," Jiraiya drew out and shifted his weight to one foot. "We want Naruto back."

"I can see why," Kakashi said dismissively and tilted his head. "But he has made friends in our group and I doubt he wants to go into unfamiliar territory with unfamiliar people."

"We're not necessarily unfamiliar," Jiraiya countered. "Just unremembered and with medical knowledge to _make _us remembered."

"Um," Naruto raised his hand and cut in. "I'm right here."

"We don't know if you lot are a group of spies just saying you are his group."

"Oh, hell," Tsunade groaned and rolled her eyes, "this again?"

"We can only promise that we're not, and it's to Naruto's best interest that he comes home with us."

"Naruto doesn't remember home."

"I'm right fucking here!"

"Naruto will never forget home, he is in the springtime of his youth!"

"Not the damn time, Lee!"

"Why don't we let him choose-"

"Let him choose? He's not in the position to. He doesn't _remem_-"

"Shut up! If you don't hand him over, I'll shoot your fucking brains out!"

"Neji, calm down, please-"

"Aw, Akamaru shit on the floor! Damn it, bad boy!"

"He'll remember home once he returns to it."

"That's enough!" Tsunade hollered and slammed her foot on the ground. "All of you are acting immaturely and irrationally. Jiraiya, even you have lost your level head." The woman turned to Kakashi and bowed her head. "I'm sorry for the violence we've brought upon you all."

"It's frankly not excusable," Itachi snapped and glared at the boy named Neji.

Tsunade didn't react and instead voiced her proposal. "My vote it to combine our groups and work together in peace, as we are both friends of Naruto's."

Said boy smiled. "I like that idea!"

"With your death threats, how do we know you're trustworthy?" Itachi cut in and frowned.

"We can only promise you that we are trustworthy and work side by side," Tsunade nodded. "And it seems like you have a greater reason to stay with us," she pointedly glanced at Sasuke and set a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I promise that we have a great amount of food and water, and plenty of shelter. We even have a hunter who leaves often to bring meat."

Jiraiya set his head down. "I agree with this choice also," he announced. "it will make us all stronger."

Most of the group nodded their approvals, save for the ones with more violent tendencies.

A few hours later, greetings and introductions had been exchanged as well as a few daunting and scary stories. At one point someone had brought warm food and Naruto chewed his soup on a bench next to Sasuke, who was balancing in his state of skin and paling at some moments and looking healthy the next. They both went back up to his hospital room to retrieve a cold-stricken Karin.

When Sasuke was picking up the pillow she had left behind, he noticed something hard in the bed and wondered why he hadn't noticed it before. He moved his hand up a bit and thought it was the railing of the bed, but lifted it anyway to make sure.

His eyes narrowed when he saw iridescent navy and he yanked the sheets down to reveal Kusanagi, glittering in glory and looking well-polished. The action startled Naruto but once he saw what was bundled in the sheets, he shot a hundred-watt grin at Sasuke.

Naruto picked Kusanagi up by the sheath and pointed it towards Sasuke. He grabbed the handle with his right hand, his fingers automatically falling into their natural worn burrows on its handle, and unsheathed the blade, both of their complexions reflecting in its flawless metal.

Naruto smiled at him. "You got it back from Suigetsu!"

Sasuke let a small smile slip and sheathed Kusanagi. "Yeah," he said softly and tucked his sword under his thumb and along his arm. In truth, he felt one hundred percent more sure of himself now that Suigetsu had surrendered his chokutō.

"How good are you with it?" Naruto wondered aloud and rubbed his hands together from the cold.

"If you ask me, very," Sasuke quipped. "And if you ask anyone else; very." He smiled.

The blond chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Don't be stuck up."

"I'm not, I promise."

Karin leaned against the door frame and chuckled.

* * *

A/N: Wow, it's been a long week. Cold one, at that. This laptop was making strange noises all through the production of its chapter, like it was wheezing and coughing. ;-; I think it's been a long life of abuse for this poor 4 year old thing. Stupid Windows. I think it's time for a Mac. Anyway, I hope you all liked this chapter! And from here on out, I think my updates will be coming weekly and a bit over that time as my professors get back in their overworking style. -rolls over and dies-

What did you guys about Naruto picking up Sasuke? I thought it might be too effeminate as I wrote it, but hell, -Miley Cyrus voice-_ it's my fiction I can write what I want_. There are a fair share of excellent stories out here that are strictly NaruSasu or SasuNaru. In fact, other famous authors encourage themselves and others to write whatever the hell they want, so I won't be chickening out during this fic and if I lose readers there's plenty more to replace them... right? :( The next fics I'm thinking of writing are NSN or SNS, whichever. This storyline requires NaruSasu, though, but it has a mind of its own. Blah blah, again, I hope you guys liked this chapter. Until next time!


	9. Hairline Fractures

Chapter 8: Hairline Fractures

**A/N: (Did you read chapter 7? I updated pretty quickly.)**

* * *

When they got back down to the food court with Karin finally dressed in a chunky sweater and what looked like two pairs of leggings under her jeans, Sasuke and Naruto were both ushered to the side of the room by Kakashi.

"Now," he murmured and his gray eye flickered to the laughing group in the center of the cafeteria. "We're going back to camp to pack up and move along with them to their camp by car. They say they stay there permanently and send out trackers by week to look for those abandoned military checkpoints in hope of finding them." Kakashi stuffed his gloved hands in his pockets. "But they say they haven't come that close yet. When we get to camp, Sasuke, I see Suigetsu laid Kusanagi to its rest with you, but take a pumper for yourself as well. We don't know if they'll confiscate our weapons and take another hostile turn on us to take Naruto, so when you're healed you need to teach him how to shoot."

Sasuke nodded and his eyes skirted to Naruto who looked a bit cross. "I still don't see why they could have just asked for me back," he whispered and knotted his arms, "something's not right about them. Maybe not all of them, but a few of them act weird. Like Neji and Ino."

Kakashi nodded his agreement and rubbed his chin. "I don't understand the situation right now, either. The only way to tell if something is or isn't right about that group is by time. Just act normally and stay close to Juugo. Now, we're heading back to our camp to meet the group on the main road by car. They drove here also since their camp is about two hundred miles back. Pack your things up tight and keep your eyes open," the man patted them both heavily on the right shoulders after awkwardly hesitating over Sasuke's left and ambled back to the group.

Jiraiya's group wrenched open the emergency exit door to the west of the hospital cafeteria, waving and bidding goodbyes like "later" and "see you lot". They poured out the door and slammed it to let a gust of howling, freezing wind rush past them.

Sasuke hummed to his side. "Let's get a head start on them," he tilted his chin behind him and strolled to the cafeteria doors. Naruto spared Karin yelling at Suigetsu a glance and popped his neck, lining up beside the raven and turning the hallway corner.

Between the time coming down to the food court and leaving it again, Naruto noticed that somehow Sasuke had acquired a pair of thinly-soled combat boots that looked odd with his grey sweatpants and fleece sweater. He racked his mind for even seeing the pair of boots lying around or something, but he could find no recollection of them. Maybe Karin had gotten them?

The blond tilted his head back and raised his eyebrows to stretch his heavy eyelids. They had been in this hospital for well over a day now and Itachi's moods had helped absolutely none to get some shut eye. He turned to the raven in an attempt to lighten his own mood.

"Hey, Sasuke, when are you gon' teach me how to shoot?"

The boy turned his body to him and set his lips in a line, raising an eyebrow. Naruto's eyes focused on the L-shaped lump in his sweater and laughed a bit, scratching the back of his neck.

"Well, why not a handgun?" He suggested, trying to get Sasuke to stop looking at him like he was a dumbass.

"Well," Sasuke drawled and kicked at a broken light bulb on the ground. "I could teach you how to shoot a handgun, but you need two for a rifle or a shotgun, and we have more of those than handguns. I can use a shotgun with one hand, but if you want to learn properly, I'll need two."

"Ah," Naruto sighed and shuffled his heels when he saw the hospital entrance a corridor in front of them. "I don't mind learning from you with one. Are you as good with them as you say with your sword?"

The corner of Sasuke's lips curled up and he practically tilted his nose to the sky. "I'm a very precise shot," he gloated. "I like shotguns better."

"Stop being stuck up!" Naruto whined and kicked a clipboard to the side, nearing the front desk of the medical center. "And, aren't those like, really loud?" he added.

"I'm not being stuck up, I'm being realistic," the other corner of the raven's lips quirked up. He shoved the entrance door open with his right arm and kicked it farther open for Naruto to shuffle through. "And yeah, they are. We have suppressors though, but they're still loud as hell."

Naruto frowned and nodded, curling in on himself at the weather outside. The sky was a pale gray and he hadn't seen the sun in a good week or so. "Why do you have so many guns?" he wondered aloud and inched closer to the boy. "You guys are like gun galore."

Sasuke was silent long enough for the blond to think that he had ignored him. He scuffed his boot at a frozen rat on the ground, scrunching his nose. Silence reigned over the two as they walked down the street and towards the gas station.

"Our father was a police chief," Sasuke said with a faulty casual air and clenched his fist. "Before we were escorted from One… we had enough time to go to his gun safe and take nearly all of the guns and ammo before the government could get us. We evacuated on our own before they could abduct us. He taught us how to shoot every basic type for the three days he was travelling with us."

Naruto wiggled his fingers in his pockets and clamped his lips shut as to not ask any inappropriate questions, but they flew out like migrating birds anyway. "Did the Katons get him?"

Sasuke's eyes flickered and he frowned at him. "No," he intoned and cast his eyes ahead of himself. "Itachi killed them. They were too old."

Surprisingly, Naruto flinched and kept quiet for a few moments. Their steps were small and slow and they turned into the chilled woods with shadows of branches creeping around them and stretching out to mar the ground in front of them. Then, when Sasuke's foot was just about to touch the dead ground, he was pulled to the side and yanked into a warm chest with welcoming, strong arms and a chin atop his head.

"It didn't have to end that way."

It took him a few moments to react. It took him a few moments to process Naruto had yanked him into a hug and was talking about his parents. It took him a few moments to realize that the blond still hadn't let go and he was possibly squeezing him tighter by the second.

Sasuke shifted roughly in his arms and tried to shove the other boy away with his right arm trapped between his chest and himself but Naruto only squeezed his waist tighter. He struggled again, turning different ways and trying to butt Naruto away but made no progress and winced when his injured shoulder shifted uncomfortably. Well, at least the blond was warm. His cheeks were thawing in his warmth and the raven figured that the only way for Naruto to possibly let him loose was to hug the boy back. He swallowed his pride and slowly wrapped his arm around the other's waist, pressing his forehead against his chest and looking down at their feet which were just inches away from each other. The pain of his parents' death was still partially fresh, but the tears had died long ago and Sasuke decided to cherish this caring action as Itachi never gave him one.

He gulped and pulled the blond closer, burying his whole face in a sturdy chest. An involuntary blurry image of his mother's smiling face, which he had inherited, resurrected itself in his mind and he sighed heavily into Naruto's chest, bunching his shirt in his fist. He remembered being taken care of by her when his father was working long hours, running around the Uchiha compound with too much sugar running through his veins. He remembered her plopping his small body down on the marble kitchen counter to hand him a scarlet pill he was all too familiar with now and a glass of orange juice, patting him on the head and kissing his cheeks. He remembered Itachi walking through the front door and yelling in his high voice that he was home, and toddling towards his big brother with a few toys in his arms to request a few games. Remembered the infant bags under his eyes and his old smile. He remembered his father coming home late at night in his police uniform to tuck him even tighter in bed and whisper about how much bad guys he had beaten up, and at those stories Sasuke would usually get too riled up and have to be shushed back to bed by Mikoto and receive his parents' kisses on either of his cheeks.

He remembered his tender age of six and a half when they had run away from Oto. His father yelling at him to find Itachi as he shoved gun after gun into a duffel bag, swiping his arm along shelves and dumping small boxes in there as well. He remembered perfectly the three days that Itachi had so selfishly decided to let them live. They had been perfectly fine, with his father protecting them from the "bad guys" with his military weapons and intricate combat. He remembered screaming at the top of his lungs as Itachi grabbed their father in a headlock and scuffled around with the larger man until his face had gone purple and crawling over wet grass to dunk his head in the dirty lake. Itachi had had deep scratch lines on his arms after, bleeding and dripping on Fugaku's pale hand with blood under its nails.

He remembered his mother returning from the woods with a basket of berries and a saddened, knowing look on her face. She had set down the basket and kissed Sasuke on the forehead then turned to Itachi. "I know," she had said and tucked a lock of her bangs behind her ear, her eyes glassy and her voice shaking. "Your father taught you well, didn't-"

She had never even gotten to complete her sentence by the time his big brother had shoved her face into the water and held her until she had stopped struggling and gone cold. He could still remember her muffled screams, her shoulders rolling out of place as she tried to kick her son away to no avail. He remembered wailing and sobbing and beating his brother's back, tugging his hair and begging him to let her go. He let go a few hours later. Sasuke's tears hadn't stopped and he crawled over to touch the rancid palm of his mother's hand, frozen and too tender to be considered living.

He was jarred from his memories when the blond ran a warm, comforting palm up and down his aching back, soothing it from his transfusion aches and relaxing in his arms.

Ever since that day, his brother's eyes never held the same volume of care that they used to. Ever since that day, he had built a dominating and superior wall against others, even his own little brother. That event put in his mind that he was the strongest of all, the bravest. To have the raw power to murder his own parents. Death threats could so easily slip out of his fast mouth and lives could be lost at the cause of his bare hands. All the man ever knew how to do anymore was look down to others, touch with the intention of killing, smile with the intention of deceiving, and kill with the intention of hurting. His only loyal childhood friends had been Deidara and Kisame, who proved not to be so loyal by clearing out the iron in the town last week. Even then had Itachi told him that he would let the raven die. Sasuke had subtly shielded himself in the past from his brother's mean comments and narrow thoughts, blocked out his taunts of his weakness and tried to raise his personality on his own. Even now, every day it wavered with Itachi's passive aggressive comments and insults. These days, it wasn't Itachi yelling at him in worry and stress anymore. It was with the malicious intent of lining up his pieces and pawns in the sick game that he had been developing over the years, closing himself off to others in order to focus on just that.

There was even a time where he had been at his lowest mental state and Karin had suddenly come along with her vast knowledge and quick temper, confident demeanor and efficiency. They found her wielding a small knife in an alleyway, and Sasuke remembered the way he had perked up when he saw the girl was about his size too. Juugo had come along with her, also, standing as sturdy as a building in calculating and superior silence. He would hold Itachi's arms behind his back when the twelve year old would enter a rage against their stupidity and childishness. Then they had found Suigetsu with an inappropriate mindset and sleazy speech, beckoning Sasuke to be just as headstrong to find himself in the matte and shiny guns his brother held more cherishingly than him. He had found himself in watching the lakes by their numerous camps freeze and melt, watching wildlife skitter by and shoot them with an arrow to skin and roast them over a fire. He had found pieces of himself hiking deep into the woods, clambering into trees and watching other groups meander by and ransacking them when their backs were turned or their eyes were closed. He would discover himself in the mirrored metal of guns and knives and even in abandoned public restrooms. He would sneak tattered books off the roads for Karin and he and read about the life that once was, what was popular, what wasn't.

But lately, a newer entity, a warm and considerate one, a fighting and stubborn one, had jammed its foot through the crack of a closing door in his mind and a new being squeezed and grunted itself through, muttering profanities and offering comfort at the slightest bit of hurt. It was Naruto. _Naruto. _Who would have and had given him blood when he was in desperate need of it. Who had scrambled to find help for him and who had given him simple advice and comments that both irritated and comforted him. Who would ask him the simplest questions about the life he had forgotten that Sasuke w_anted _to answer and make innocent small talk. Naruto, who was as confusing as a maze but who was as irritatingly simple as the concept of the sun rising in the morning.

The other boy finally loosened his arms and gently let Sasuke free of embrace, noticing the strong ache in his left shoulder and shifted it with his other hand.

Naruto sputtered a bit. "Oh, geez, I wasn't thinking… sorry."

"It's okay," Sasuke murmured, feeling softened by the lingering warmth on his body. The raven flinched when he realized that Naruto had been the only person to hug him besides his parents and Karin. He turned and began walking in a different direction from the camp.

Great, now Naruto felt like he fucked something up within the short hug he had given the raven. Yeah, he had hugged him back, but before that, he had struggled to no end. _But at least he hugged me back, _he comforted himself.

Without thinking, the blond followed the raven into a part of the woods that was hacked down and still had logs randomly spread through its width. He frowned when he didn't recognize this direction to the camp but kept silent as to not upset Sasuke. Kusanagi swung heavily on the boy's slender back and shined even from his distance away. Their footsteps sent loud crunches over dead grass and ice and cracked earth, and frankly disturbing the nature around them.

Naruto blanched when he saw a huge black SUV sloppily parked in the center of this mess and gaped even further when Sasuke brushed a panel on the side of it that sent its trunk door rising to the sky. The boy shuffled to the back and set a foot inside it to roughly lug himself into the spacious trunk. After a few moments he could be heard shuffling around and called Naruto.

Sasuke leaped from the trunk with a red gas tank in his hand and a new shotgun swinging with Kusanagi and shoved it at the blond. "Fill it up," he nodded at the gas latch on the side of the SUV. "It only runs on solar power during the summer."

Naruto silently took the gas tank and stared at the gas latch that was just a few inches under his face. The damn vehicle was _huge_ and looked like it could shred up a mob and come out without a scratch. He gulped and swung open the latch to reveal a gaping fuel tunnel and shoved the tank's snout into it, tilting it back and nearly trembling when the SUV gulped it down loudly.

Sasuke shuffled around and brought their satchel of guns to the front of the trunk, grabbing a few heavy wool blankets and throwing them to the middle row of car seats. He left one on the floor there since he knew Suigetsu would want to nap the whole two-hundred mile drive.

Though his voice was muffled, Sasuke heard Naruto call out "Who the fuck drives this?"

Sasuke smirked and pressed the same panel that swiveled the trunk door closed. "Kakashi's the only one old enough to know how." He chuckled.

Naruto laughed a bit and shook the last of the fuel into the tank, slamming the latch closed and setting the jug down. He turned to Sasuke and leaned against the SUV, huddling into himself and rubbing his hands together. "How'd you get it?"

Sasuke shrugged and leant in front of him as well. "Took it off the hands of a military official last year."

"Eh?" Naruto screeched. "W-"

"He didn't put up a struggle," Sasuke offered and pursed his lips. "They can't track us with it anyway. He was also on the run."

The blond hesitated and gulped. "What now?" He questioned, getting distracted by the puffs of his breath in the air.

"Now," Sasuke asserted and turned to the woods, "we pack camp."

Naruto groaned and stomped over dead grass, knocking low-hanging branches out of the way with some of them snapping.

"Stop making so much fucking noise," Sasuke hissed. "Katons or scouts could be anywhere."

Naruto blanched and spread his arms. "Then why the hell are we out here without weapons?"

"_I_ have a weapon," the raven pointed out and shrugged Kusanagi and the gun higher on his shoulder. Naruto pouted and continued to follow the other boy, this time setting his feet down gently and ducking under branches or delicately moving them away.

Sasuke walked deeper into the ashen woods, frozen leaves shattering under his light steps and stiff branches whispering against his arms. He shied away from one when it particularly brushed over his stitches. He could see the slightly worn path to camp from here, their little fire's embers long spent and various dining utensils spread out. He kicked at the fire's ashes and spread them out, lugging their sitting logs into the woods to erase their history of camping here. He picked up a few plastic spoons and forks and snapped them in half with one hand, then scuffed a hole in the ground to bury them. He cursed when he accidentally shifted his left shoulder a few times and set to pack up their books.

A few feet away, Naruto was crawling inside tents and grabbing sleeping bags and blankets and folding them up. Figures that bastard would give him the worst job. He finished up with the tent he knew as Kakashi's and disassembled it according to the instructions on its plastic side, stuffing it back into its surprisingly small storage box and setting his sleeping bag on top of it.

The next tent was known as Itachi's. The blond hesitated before he opened the flap of the tent, peering in to see an already rolled-up sleeping bag and a knife kit in the center of the tent. He nearly skittered away when he saw that one of them had dried blood on it, but sobered up and folded it back together.

Two tents later and finding a secret stash of really creepy snake skins, he finally cringed and trudged over to the mess that he knew was his and Sasuke's tent. He knew that Sasuke was a fussier type of guy and folded his sleeping bag and blankets back up every morning, but Naruto was the polar opposite. He inched the tent's zipper open to Sasuke's immaculate left side of the tense and the pile of blankets on his side. He groaned and stepped in, kneeling down and beginning to fold what he realized was too much blankets. Once he finished, he took apart the tent and sat on a sleeping bag, burying his face in his hands and rubbing his eyes.

A snort sounded from behind him and Naruto turned to fix his friend with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.

"The next time we pack up like this, you have the damn tents," Naruto complained and added under his breath, "cripple."

Sasuke hummed and picked up a few sleeping bags, tucking them under his arm and nodding towards the woods again. "Come on," he goaded. "The sooner we get all of this done, we can leave as soon as the others get back."

Naruto cussed under his breath and hugged as many boxes and sleeping bags as he could to himself and stomped behind the crunch of Sasuke's light steps.

* * *

"What the hell took you guys so long?" Naruto whined. He and Sasuke had finished packing up over an hour ago, making small talk here and there and arguing about how long the others were taking.

"My, my," Kakashi smiled. "We had to look into a few things."

"You mean _Itachi _wanted to look into things and he forced us to stay with him?" Karin growled and kicked the SUV's tire.

"Let's just go," Itachi demanded and climbed into the front passenger seat, slamming the door hard enough to make its glass window wobble.

Kakashi snorted and shrugged his body into the driver's seat, pressing a screen that immediately lit up in green and the engine roared to life, spitting exhaust out its pipes and heating the inside of the vehicle.

The doors of the vehicle opened automatically and Suigetsu hurled himself into the trunk, grabbing the blanket that was there and bundling himself in it. Juugo and Karin humbly got into the back seats and Naruto and Sasuke into the middle seats of the car. They slammed shut and a few strange green symbols ran around on the glass of the windows, the handles lighting up in the same bright green as well as the windshield.

Kakashi skirted out of the cleared space and swerved through the woods, making it to the main road in record time. He recklessly swung onto the road and the tires screeched to a stop when they saw two compact cars and a white SUV that rivalled the size of theirs. The figures standing outside of the leading SUV waved and climbed back into the car, turning back around into the direction of the camp with a funeral line of cars after it.

They had been only driving for five minutes when Kakashi complained about how slow they drove, "Why are they going sixty-five?" he had complained.

"It's a hell of a lot better than the hundred and thirty you go!" Karin waved her fist from the backseat. Juugo nodded his silent agreement. Itachi set a hand on the back of Kakashi's headrest and turned in his seat to glare at all of them.

"How long is the drive?" Naruto pondered and kicked the underside of the driver's seat.

"Well," Kakashi hissed. "It _would _take an hour and a half if we were going over a hundred. Now it's going to take over three damn hours." Sasuke sighed and plastered his cheek against the window.

It had been a grueling hour and a half filled with turning pages, snores from Suigetsu, and growls from Itachi. Sasuke had fallen asleep with a book on his chest and his legs spread out between himself and Naruto, sharing a green wool blanket. Naruto had his chin resting on his hand, watching frozen forests pass by and the sky darken.

Karin was calmly turning the pages of another medical book and Juugo had somehow managed to start knitting what looked like a cloak. Sasuke muttered something in his sleep and roughly kicked Naruto's thigh, hogging the blanket. He whined and tried to tug it back, but Sasuke held it in an iron grip.

Suigetsu suddenly woke up mid snore and shot up from his position, yelling to the front of the car. "Oi, I need to take a piss, stop the car!" He hollered and beat his fist on the back seats.

"_Pee _out the window," Karin hissed and gave him a disgusted look from over the cover of the book.

"Do you think I should just beep?" Kakashi asked Itachi. Itachi nodded and pressed a button on the dashboard that caused most of the SUV to light up in green again and give a high-toned _beep. _

Kakashi slammed his fist on the steering wheel continuously and squealed to a stop, keeping it on there for a good few moments. Once all of the cars in front of them had stopped also, he man climbed out of the SUV and signaled a time out.

The doors to the car opened and Sasuke nearly fell out of the SUV when they did, being jerked awake and catching himself on the door hinge with his right hand. He scowled into the evening and shut the door closed, heading around the other side of the vehicle to see Suigetsu run into the woods. The drivers of the car had stepped out and Kakashi was calling something out about a bathroom break. Some members of the group drifted into the same woods Suigetsu had run into, spreading themselves modestly apart. He sighed and asked Karin how much time had passed.

Naruto blinked the sleep out of his eyes and headed into the woods also, deciding to get pissing out of the way. He strolled about twenty feet into the forest so that the trees offered enough privacy. He heard Suigetsu's sigh some distance away and chuckled to himself, stopping in front of a tree to spread his legs and unzip his pants.

He idly listened to the hiss of his own stream and the alerting volume of Suigetsu's a few trees behind him, trying to focus on the richer quality of this forest and its green moss. The bark of the trees was dark brown and most of their leaves had already fallen in the autumn, and the earth here was moist. Back at their camp was a harsh dry cold, and this way it was a wet cold. A squirrel jumped around in the trees above him and a few birds cawed in the distance. There were more animals, too. The blond tucked himself back into his boxers and leaned against a tree next to the one he had just peed on, waiting for Suigetsu to finish up and head back to the SUV. He raised his eyebrows when he sounded like he wasn't even close to done and waited a few more minutes, growing more awkward when he realized the boy had been pissing for around five minutes and stiffly walked back to the road. He greeted a drowsy looking Sasuke as well as a few of the other members of their new group, making small talk and laughing when Akamaru jumped up to set his huge paws on his chest, yipping and licking his face.

He immediately stopped laughing when Akamaru hunkered down to lift his leg, bare his nuts, and piss on his foot. Sasuke started laughing then.

Naruto screamed and shook his boot that was thankfully waterproof of its urine and glared at Kiba. "What the hell is wrong with your dog!"

Kiba finished snickering and clapped his hands together a few times, grinning and baring his sharp canines. "He loves you like the bitches he finds in the wild," his voice cracked and he started howling in laughter again. Naruto's ears were bright read and he dried his foot in the grass, scowling at the drooling and panting dog.

"It's not funny," he grumbled at Sasuke. The boy only snorted and kicked his other boot, crossing his arms and leaning against the SUV.

A few more minutes passed and Karin's face turned bright red.

"How is this medically possible! _Suigetsu!" _She screamed. Kakashi giggled from beside her and flicked through one of his porn books, eyes scrunching in delight. Sasuke looked a bit disturbed and climbed back into the SUV along with Itachi, settling down and waiting for the white-haired boy to return.

* * *

"Wow," Naruto commented and turned in his seat to stare at Suigetsu. "You sure did piss a lot."

Suigetsu grunted and played with a gooey substance that Naruto didn't want to know was. Karin grumbled something about medical problems and buried her nose back into her book, cursing under her breath and scowling into its pages.

The blond turned back and stared at Kakashi, then Itachi, and then Sasuke. "I'm bored," he complained.

"Deal with it," Sasuke deadpanned and kept his eyes on the scenery passing by. Things around here were definitely greener and richer.

"We'll be there in about thirty minutes," Kakashi bartered with one hand on the wheel and the other holding his bright orange book. Naruto didn't want to start a conversation with Sasuke while Itachi was around to hiss and spit at him. Juugo would look really angry whenever the blond tried to distract him from his knitting and Itachi was a hopeless cause. He fixed his blue eyes out the window and slumped his shoulders.

"Take a nap," Sasuke suggested and nudged him with his socked toe. His boots were resting side by side on the vehicle's carpet floor in between them and the raven had been hogging the middle seat for leg space.

"Well, if you'd give me some space, I would!" He growled and narrowed his eyes at the boy.

Sasuke rolled pitch black eyes and placed his feet on the ground, leaning against the car door and shutting his eyes. Naruto laid down and nudged his head into the raven's thigh. He stretched his legs out as much as he could, which was only a cramped embryo position that made him feel like he was back in the womb.

Sasuke's eyes flickered to Kakashi and Itachi who seemed to be consumed in their own conversation, and he pursed his lips and patted his lap. Naruto peered up at him from his pillow of his hands, sending him a questioning look. The raven patted his lap again, this time more irritably, before Naruto shuffled his blond head onto his lap and stretched his legs out more comfortably. The boy nuzzled his right thigh and immediately conked out.

Sasuke sighed and rested his head against the cold window once again, finding that it relieved his headache and shut his own eyes, drifting off to slumber as well.

Had he kept his eyes open a second longer, he would have witnessed Itachi slowly turning in his seat and staring at them both from the end of his vision.

* * *

They were both started awake when the vehicle jerked to a stop and Kakashi wailed in praise. Itachi all but slammed the door open and storm away into the camp. Sasuke shoved Naruto's head off his lap and exited as well, yawning into the significantly colder night and wincing.

Slowly but efficiently, they unpacked the trunk and headed into the camp. Kakashi followed the rest of the cars to a clearing where they parked and fueled them up.

Jiraiya approached them and grinned. "We have extra tents if you lot need them, or if you have your own you can set up wherever you'd like. Make yourselves at home, grab something to eat, shit, whatever."

Juugo humbly thanked the man and took most of their bulk to their camp, a large green-grassed clearing with a bonfire and heavy logs around it. There was a metal rod with what looked like a bird roasting over the fire, crackling and twitching. There were twelve tents already set up, as well as a poorly placed barrel of guns in the center of the circular formation. _Bandits could waltz right in and ransack us_, Naruto shook his head. Some of those tents were already zipped up and some snores were heard. Sasuke handed him the box of their tent and looked smug at not having to do the work.

"You're lazy," Naruto griped and scowled.

"I'm efficient," Sasuke countered and smirked his part.

"Whatever."

The raven made a humming noise and observed the camp, large and with its perimeter patrolled by the tall boy Neji and a girl with twin buns on her head, looking tough and alert.

Sasuke's eyes continued to glide over the camp, paying particular attention to their oddly placed barrel of guns. Usually their group's guns were stored in Kakashi's or Itachi's tent, safe and inconspicuous. But here, they were left in the open. Like they weren't important enough. To be used nonchalantly by anyone. Like toys. He sneered at the barrel and stared at the girl named Hinata, who was huddled close to the fire. She looked skittish and shy, with her long black hair pleated down her back. Next to her was the Sakura girl who kept glancing at him and skirting her eyes away when he looked back at her. Seated next to Sakura was the boy with a hood over his head and sunglasses, staring numbly into the fire with his knitted fingers hanging between his knees. The boy named Shikamaru had managed to doze off in the space of grass between the log and fire, a hand on his stomach and his eyebrow twitching in his sleep. He could hear the pitch of Karin's voice in the distance as she screamed profanities at Suigetsu, and the counter of Tsunade who told them both to keep it the fuck down.

Sasuke eyed the roasting bird over the fire, but he wasn't hungry at all. He was wary in this new environment, a space too vulnerable for Katons and government spies. The atmosphere was too cozy and-

He caught another glimpse of Neji alertly watching the camp's borders, a bow in his hand and a pack of arrows on his back. He eyed Tenten who had a rifle poised but lowered to the ground, glaring into the dark woods as if daring a Katon to drone into their camp and cock its guns. He glanced at Jiraiya, who seemed to be watching everybody as he poked the coals of the fire.

He realized, just then, that these habits were _normal. _He realized that Itachi had kept them under straining rule and curfew, high strung and sleepy. These people looked well-rested and well-fed. These people looked ready for battle, but at the same time relaxed and ready for conversation. Was this the environment Naruto had been accustomed to? Raised in, even? At ease and pampered?

Said blond groaned as he finished setting up their tent behind him. Sasuke turned around to watch the boy when he unzipped the tent and lugged both of their sleeping bags and blankets in there, stretching like a cat and wincing when he heard some of his bones pop.

Naruto yawned and glanced at his friend, lazily scratching his arm. His eyes focused on the small group huddled in front of the fire behind Sasuke and back to his pale face. He nodded at them and asked, "Do you want a bite?"

Sasuke shook his head. "I'm going to bed. 'Night." He brushed past him and toed off his boots in front of the tent, stepping in and zipping it shut.

"'Night," Naruto called back and wrapped his arms around himself when a frosty gust of wind hit him. He stamped his feet and headed over to the bonfire, smiling at everyone around it.

"Naruto," a boy with sunglasses that mirrored the fire nodded his head at him and waited for a response. The blond blanched and wondered for a few moments how he should reply when the boy said it for him.

"Shino."

Naruto nodded and tried to keep the awkwardness out of his voice. "Shino."

He greeted Sakura and sat next to the shivering Hinata, watching the boy sleeping on the ground snore and scratch his stomach, rolling closer to the fire and splaying his limbs. His stomach growled loudly and he chuckled nervously when Hinata hid her giggle behind her hand, fixing her pretty opaque eyes on him.

"W-Would you like something to eat?" Her teeth chattered and she held his hand in both of hers, leading him to a large cooler behind a few of the tents. "You always had a big appetite," she whispered. "But it looks like you've lost some weight. You must gain it back to be healthy, ma?"

Naruto felt like a grandson being harassed by his grandmother, telling him that the needed more meat on his bones and to eat their heritage-traditional fatty foods to get it. But he also felt like rubbing his hands together, cackling, and devouring that whole cooler of warm food.

Hinata tugged one of its ends open and produced a plastic container of hearty homemade soup that made his mouth water with just a look. Meat, _meat, _it had real meat in it! There was real vegetables in it too, organic, brewed thickly in beef juice with chunks of potatoes and thick sweet carrots. _Kami-sama! _He felt like raising his arms to the air and bowing down to the ground.

She handed him a plastic spoon and set the container in his hands, shyly smiling at him. "It's g-good to see you again," she whispered and headed back to the bonfire, huddling with Sakura and smiling at something she said.

Naruto wrenched the container lid open and inhaled the soup. There was no chewing and swallowing the creamy broth in between, it just passed right through his stomach and left him warm and drowsy. He smiled up into the stars at night and thanked Kami for his meal, discreetly bowing when he set the container and spoon on top of the cooler. It felt much better than the stale canned soup that Juugo would grimly brew, or bland frozen vegetables they would struggle to heat up and Karin's failed attempts at disinfecting two year old chicken breasts. Yes, Sasuke had mentioned that sometimes he and Itachi would hunt but animals around them were scarce and you were most likely to come across a Katon than a mammal.

He bid the huddlers goodnight and floated back to his tent, glowing in health and creeping into the flap after taking off his boots outside. He struggled to beat his pants off his legs and hopped around in his boxers for a bit before he stuffed himself inside the cold material of his sleeping bag. The blond audibly shuddered and he piled three more blankets on top of himself, turning onto his left side and facing Sasuke about a foot and a half away. He made sure that the boy sleeping on his right side, which he was. In the past nights Naruto knew the raven had a habit of sleeping on his left and staying that way. The boy had made himself a warm cocoon with blankets tucked under his chin and a smug look on his features. Naruto scowled until his shivers stopped and warmth seeped into his bones, curling into a ball and studying Sasuke's face. He still had the same painfully handsome features as when Naruto first saw him, so what was the point of staring?

That was a question that he couldn't answer.

Pale lips mouthed something in their slumber and the raven turned over to his back, then winced and turned back to his side. The corners of Naruto's lips barely quirked up when Sasuke repeated the process a few times, his slumbering mind not understanding why it hurt so much to sleep on his back.

Naruto continued watching the long black eyelashes flutter over pale cheekbones until his own eyes shut and sleep engulfed him.

* * *

A/N: I hope you guys liked this chapter, but I myself literally fucking hate this chapter so much. It feels like it's dragging along, but I had to put these elements in here so the kind of life these characters are living is emphasized. Oh, well. I feel like you guys review more when I put a cute or a funny. -zips lips- last time I talked about reviews I got 2. ;-; But I promise, I'm literally so proud of the next chap! I know you guys will love it. -le wink- I know I updated pretty fast right after I said I wouldn't, but it seems like this week is literally the week I only have like 2 quizzes to take and a deadline to reach. The next chap is actually already halfway done but I want to leave this up for a while so everybody can read it properly & the reviews accumulate? I don't know. I'm sorry I talk so much. I really have like 7 other things to say but who takes this much time to read an author's note? I know if I personally- okay, that's enough. Bye, I love you guys.


	10. Motor Skills

Chapter 9: Motor Skills

* * *

His eyes pried themselves open and he rolled over, becoming more tangled in blankets and purring into his sleeping bag. Naruto's eyes wondered over to Sasuke, who looked a bit flustered in his sleep and kept mumbling something to himself. The boy scowled in his sleep and cursed.

Naruto relaxed for a few moments, listening to the raven's hushed words and sighs before propping himself up on his elbows and sitting on his knees, letting his blankets fall around his hips and shivering in the cold. He unfolded a knot that had formed in his boxer leg and stood up, shimmied back into his jeans and opened the flap of their tent. He nearly shoved his foot into one of Sasuke's boots before noting that it was black and smaller. He put on his own shoes and meandered over to the alert group that had formed around the fire, laughing and chatting with a few new faces.

Konohamaru was dozing off with his back propped against the log, a forgotten bowl of oats sliding in his lap. The girls of the camp were calmly chatting, probably doing the "girl talk" Karin had wondered aloud sometimes and touching her red hair to exclaim about how long and smooth it was. Karin looked delighted to be in their presence and Naruto felt happy for her that she could have her own little group of friends. Kiba was sleeping on Akamaru's stomach, his feet outstretched to the fire and snoring loudly. Neji stood up to offer him a granola bar and a cup of orange juice that he gladly accepted and sat next to Shino to eat.

"Naruto?" a plump boy with red cheeks and long brown hair barreled over to him to slap his back and knock him to his knees with the force. "'Ya ass! Thought you were done for!"

He choked and glared at the boy. "W-what the hell!" He wheezed and stood up. "Who the f-"

"Chouji," Tenten chided and slipped between the boys. "I guess you haven't talked to Tsunade," she hissed to him and grabbed him by the ear. "Sorry, Naruto, he's got something to do!" She yelled and tugged Chouji to the entrance of the camp.

The blond scratched the back of his head and drained his cup of juice, frowning into the leftover pulp swirling around it. He really wished that he could remember these people, but like Tsunade and Sakura said, apparently he had some memories that he'd probably want to forget. But then again, like Kakashi said, only time would reveal their trustworthiness.

He decided that he was feeling a bit alone and when he turned around to go wake up Sasuke, he bumped into a face with sea green eyes with heavy bags under them. The small boy in front of him had fiery red hair that matched Karin's and a frightening aura that Naruto could practically see curling around him.

"Eh, sorry," he said and stepped away from the boy, heading back towards the tents when iron fingers locked around his wrist and stopped him in his tracks. Naruto slowly turned his head back, becoming slightly scared when he saw that it was the same red-haired boy he had bumped into.

"Uh… yeah?" He tried to shake his wrist free but the boy didn't loosen his grip. Green eyes bored into his own blue and he could feel a cold sweat brim his scalp.

"I said sorry," Naruto said, this time a bit louder and tried to yank his hand away from the boy. "Hey, dude, let me go, I said sorry!" his eyebrows furrowed and this time his voice raised even more.

"Gaara," a hand rested itself on the boy's shoulder and squeezed. "I see you found Naruto already."

Naruto raised startled eyes to Jiraiya and held up his right hand. "He won't let me go!"

Jiraiya's knuckles tightened to the point that it looked painful and Gaara let his wrist go. Naruto yanked his hand to his waist and rubbed it with his other, surprised at how tight the boy's grip had been and glared at him.

"Naruto, I don't blame you," Jiraiya said. "I would be startled if he grabbed me like that, too. Knock it off, boy," he turned to Gaara and wacked him on the back.

"Naruto, Gaara was your best friend during the time that you were here," Jiraiya announced and crossed his arms. "Gaara, play nice. Naruto has lost his memories." The man walked away and Naruto was tempted to hug his leg to bring him back.

Gaara crossed his arms and stared at Naruto some more. Now he was definitely in a cold sweat, he whined to himself and hunched his shoulders. The other boy made no movements whatsoever and stared at him unblinkingly for a few more moments.

Naruto shifted and scratched his arm, looking down at his boot and scuffing the toe into moist grass. Usually, yes, he would be more talkative, but this boy had just started on the wrong foot with him and gave him a funny vibe.

The blond sucked his cheeks in and continued to avert his eyes, digging a small "c" into the ground with his shoe. He praised Kami in his mind when he felt familiar thin fingers wrap around his bicep and looked down at Sasuke, who was looking down at Gaara with a frown.

"What's going on here?" He grumbled. "Naruto, have you-"

"Oh, dear!" Naruto yelled in his stage voice and held a hand up dramatically. "Your iron is low!"

"What? What the fuck-"

"Oh, no, Sasuke! Nooooo!" He droned and dragged the raven by his waist to the bonfire and shoved him onto a vacant log.

"What the fuck are you doing!" Sasuke swiped at his chest. "Whatever it is, knock it the hell off!"

Naruto pictured a fluffy black kitten hissing with its nails out in his mind and barely prevented the corners of his lips from turning up. Sasuke's clothes looked a bit ruffled and he well rested, but no matter how good of a morning it was the boy was _not _one of those people.

The raven stood up and accepted the granola bar handed to him by Karin and pocketed it. "I was going to offer to teach you how to shoot today, but since you just want to mess around-"

"No!" Naruto cried and flailed his arms. "I'll be good, I promise! Teach me how!"

"You're too riled up today-"

Naruto pouted and clamped his hands together. "Please?"

Sasuke glared at him. "I'm not kidding when I say that it's going to be hands-on. We'll be hunting and handling Katons-"

"I know!" Naruto wheezed. "I'll calm down and pay attention, I promise!"

"You _promise?"_ Sasuke eyed him and set his lips in a straight line. "It's not fun and games."

"I get that!" the blond snapped. "I'll take it seriously."

Sasuke was silent for a few moments. "Fine. Meet me by the car and don't tell anyone where you're going, just say you're getting some blankets or something. I'm going to change."

Naruto discreetly pumped his fist in victory and ambled to the entrance of the camp, remembering that Kakashi had gone straight past it and then turned to the right. He kicked at a few stray gravel pebbles and bathed in his own enthusiasm, anticipating what Sasuke was going to teach him how to shoot and whether he'd be good or not. When he saw another clearing to his right he turned into it, bouncing in his steps when he saw the black SUV hidden behind some brush and jogging over to it.

The blond rubbed his hands together and shivered a bit. The temperature was well below freezing, he noticed. Maybe about fifteen or twenty degrees. He absently wondered why animals hadn't been holing up in the ground and flinched when a fleck of icy rain hit his cheek and froze on it. He batted it off and looked at the wet spot on his tan fingers, wondering if Sasuke would cancel their lessons because it had started to rain a bit. His eyes widened when a piece of dandruff landed in his hand. Damn!

He shook his hair wildly and opened his eyes to see a bit more dandruff fly out, staring at the white flecks in horror and turning away from them.

But he was met with more white flecks. Actually, they were falling all around the whole clearing. He gaped at the gentle flurry of white and held his hand out again, a single snowflake landing in his palm and melting before he could inspect it. He caught another and studied its thread-like structure before it melted into another small puddle and was replaced with three more. Naruto looked up into the sky to watch a sphere of sprinkles float down and pelt the ground, sticking to each other and looking soft.

Suddenly Sasuke was in front of him, annoyed and brushing past him to open the trunk of the SUV and clamber into the trunk. He had changed into a pair of well-fitting dark jeans, the blond noted.

"It's snowing!" Naruto cried and poked his friend in the butt, his hand being slapped away to continue rummaging.

"I see that," Sasuke grunted and tossed him two duffel bags, one black and one made of burlap. He crawled out of the trunk to bring a plastic storage box with him that appeared to be full of blankets. "I'll give you one of Itachi's old coats," he said and nodded at the blond to open the container. He hesitated and lifted the lid off of it, Sasuke's hand immediately diving into it and producing a dark brown bomber coat with tan wool lining it. The raven shoved it into his chest and pushed the container back into the SUV, shutting the trunk door and picking up the burlap duffel bag on the ground. He nodded at the other one and slipped Kusanagi into the duffel bag.

Naruto shrugged the coat on that fit a bit too big and picked up the black duffel bag, nearly doubling over with its weight and wheezing.

"Do you have a body in here?" he grunted and carried it like a baby, grimacing at Sasuke.

"No, they're guns," he sniffed and turned to the thick woods away from the camp. "We have a long way to go so they won't hear the shots. Come on."

"How much?" Naruto tripped over a thick root hidden under a bush and cursed.

"Hn," Sasuke shook his hair of snow and scrunched his nose. "I'd say five miles minimum. Sound travels faster in cold air and the ground here is flat, so even then they'd probably have a good chance of hearing us. But, we don't want to travel too far out in case we get lost."

"Aw," Naruto squished his foot on a lush mushroom and paled when it emitted a rancid smell.

"Don't do that," Sasuke reprimanded and held his hand over his nose. "Damn."

The blond snickered a bit and rubbed his sole off on the bark of a tree. "Hey, Sasuke, how do you know what you know?"

"How do I know what I know." Sasuke repeated and tilted his head to the side, letting Naruto catch up to him to stroll by his side.

"Yeah," Naruto said and held his hands in the air. "Like what you just said, about sound travelling. And what you've told me about animals and what people used to be into."

Sasuke hummed and stepped over a tree root. "Books. Picked them up from the side of the road, snuck into bookstores when I told Itachi that I was just checking out a dead Katon or something. People had a lot of magazines, too, which just had things like recipes and furniture in them. House furniture, what people decorated their houses with."

Naruto made a small "o" with his mouth and nodded. "What did guys like us like? Were they perverts like Kakashi?"

The raven frowned. "Well, the only thing I could find was that they liked girls. And sports, they weren't too shallow."

"Wow," Naruto whispered. "That sounds kind of boring. I like being out here. And frogs. Frogs are cool. And talking to you," he confided and smiled softly.

Sasuke felt his ears turn hot at that last comment. "I like nature, too, and snakes and cats. And, um, I like talking to you, too."

The blond smiled broadly at him and chattered again. Sasuke's neck didn't stop getting hotter and hotter once he saw his straight teeth and his cheeks heated up, but he hoped Naruto dismissed it as a flush of the cold. He cursed himself and willed the damn blush to go down, but it persistently stayed as it was and only his ears cooled down at the gravelly quality of Naruto's voice.

One of the few times he had blushed like this was when he accidentally walked in on Karin changing her shirt in the woods when they were fourteen, braless and screeching when she saw him. It wasn't much of a sight to see, but nonetheless it proved the female anatomy he had studied in a science part of a bookstore. The other time was when Itachi had wandered into his area of the woods when he had been taking care of _private _business over a year ago. The only other time was when they were twelve and he and Suigetsu were the only ones left in an old swimming pool's showers and the boy had told him about boners and getting rid of them on his own through the curtain of his shower, then had gotten it up just when Sasuke was becoming annoyed and slammed the curtain open. Sasuke had run away like the place was going to explode and complained to Itachi and Kakashi about the vulgarity. Kakashi had just laughed and patted his shoulder, a strange gleam in his eye and Itachi had taken pity on him and given him "the talk." Frankly, it was a memory he didn't like resurfacing and one that made his face feel like it was on fire.

"Hey," Naruto called and frowned down at him. "Are you okay? You're all red…"

"I'm fine," he managed and nearly choked at a horrible continuation of the memory when Karin had told him and Juugo about female functions. The tall boy had thrown up on Kakashi's leg and Karin had only sniggered and made fun of them for being so skittish.

Naruto made a worried sound and paused in his steps before a massive tree trunk that was at least a good five feet tall, scratching the back of his neck and looking a bit uncomfortable as well. "Are you… constipated or something? 'Cause if you need any privacy or something, I can-"

"No," Sasuke deadpanned and rolled his eyes heavily. "I was just… remembering things that I'd rather not. Ever."

"Oh," Naruto dragged out and grinned. "Well, are you 'gonna spill?"

"No," Sasuke repeated and scowled. "I just said I don't-"

"Please?" the blond whined and gave him a pleading look. "You're the only one that talks to me around here, the others treat me like I'm-"

"Oh, stop with the guilt trip. Fine," he grumbled and stared at the tree trunk in front of them. Naruto swung a leg over the trunk and hoisted himself over it, grunting when he landed and setting his elbow on the top of it. He held out a hand to Sasuke and he grabbed it with his own clammy one, digging his foot into the bark of the trunk and leaping over it. Naruto supported his weight when he landed and they continued walking, the forest becoming thicker in growth and lusher.

"Well, I was thinking about several things, but…" Sasuke started, and then relayed the memory of Karin first, Naruto grimacing the whole story through.

"I kind of figured that when she sent me out for her stuff," he scrunched his nose.

"Yeah, yeah, I was there."

"Don't get so smart. What else were you thinking about?"

"Yeah, whatever," he grumbled. He was about to open his mouth to tell him about Itachi walking in on him relieving stress, but decided to keep that story to himself and told the one about Suigetsu.

That ended up with Naruto throwing his head back in laughter and stamping his feet, catching snowflakes in his mouth and gasping for air. He doubled over and clutched his stomach, cackling and struggling for breath.

"Shut up," Sasuke said and tucked some of his bangs behind his ear. "I was only twelve, I literally almost died of embarrassment."

Naruto stood up and let out a soft wail, rubbing a single tear from his left eye and catching his breath.

Sasuke sniggered a bit despite himself and realized the hilarity of his prudishness during his preteen years. He laughed at himself along with Naruto's rebirthed chuckles when he remembered Itachi's deadpan face during the whole lecture.

He smiled softly when Naruto's shoulders gently shook with suppressed laughter, stepping over a peculiar large rock.

They walked in silence for a few more minutes until Naruto almost looked nostalgic for memories that wouldn't resurface. "Hm," he murmured and studied the moss handing over their heads. "Um, speaking of that, have you ever… you know…"

Genuinely forgetting their previous banter, Sasuke said, "What?"

"Had sex."

The raven was a bit taken back but he answered honestly nonetheless. "No… there was never any time for those kinds of things, and never any space."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "I'd like to think that I haven't done it either. I don't… expect it from myself?"

Sasuke nodded and slung the burlap bag higher on his shoulder. "I-"

A rustle far in the thick growth in front of them froze the two in their tracks. A section of bushes about sixty feet in front of them rustled violently again and Sasuke shoved Naruto down onto the ground, spluttering and flailing his limbs. He clamped his hand over Naruto's mouth and tried to tell him to shut the fuck up in a single glare.

Sasuke reached behind him and into the lip of the burlap duffel, extracting a lightweight bow and a metal arrow. He elbowed the blond in his side and shoved the items into his arms.

"Hands-on lesson," he murmured and eyed the chubby brown rabbit. "Bow and arrow edition."

"What?" Naruto half-whispered, half-yelled. The rabbit's head shot up and it perked its floppy ears, munching on a berry and twitching its nose. It hopped over to a different bush and yanked a full branch off of it with its teeth, chewing the leaves with nearly one go.

"Hold the bow up with your left hand," he whispered. Naruto glared at him, but he did as he was told.

"The gap at the end of the arrow is where you fix it on the string…" he continued and glanced at the boy to make sure he was paying attention. The blond fastened his arrow on the bow and his fingers naturally fell into place around it, and he drew the string back. "Which eye do I use to aim?"

Sasuke frowned and racked his brain for which side was Naruto's dominant. He recalled the blonde fiddling with things with a specific hand and whispered, "Right. Shoot."

"Aw, but I don't want to kill it! It didn't do anything!"

"It's for food. There'll be millions of others of those things to replace one."

Naruto sighed, fixed his aim, strengthened his grip and let the string loose. As soon as his fingers weren't touching the wire anymore he closed his eyes but he could still hear a tiny whimper and a few sniffles from the rabbit.

The raven stood up and jogged to where he had seen the arrow land, grunting in victory when he saw its limp body perfectly speared with half an arrow. He picked up the clean part of the arrow and motioned Naruto over. The boy looked all but miserable when he saw the bunny dead on a stick but he accepted it to trade Sasuke for the burlap sack. The boy set the sack on the ground and pierced the arrow through it, rummaging through the bag before he clamped a round rubber tip on the arrowhead and handing it to Naruto.

"I'll carry the guns now," he offered and held out his hand.

"Good," the blond grumbled and hunched over when he took the sturdy bag of artillery off his shoulder. "They weigh almost as much as you."

Sasuke pursed his lips and slung the – _not heavy at all_ – bag over his shoulder and shifted Kusanagi. "We'll keep on for a few more minutes, and right now I'll show you how to work a shotgun. Then we'll find a buck or a Katon and shoot it."

Naruto felt the bead of nervous sweat run down his neck and freeze. There was a paper thin blanket of snow on the ground now, soft and sparkling in his steps. The sky was ashen with stories of volumes that opened to let a thick flurry through. He hiked along with Sasuke, branches snagging at the sleeves of his new coat and shifting his ankles over marled roots. He dimly heard the clinks and grinds of metal guns against each other, the rich patter of ammo in its box.

They trekked farther into the thinning green growth of the forest for some long moments. A strong gust of wind rushed past them and brought a heavy glob of snow in its wake. Although Naruto was warm in his newfound coat and Sasuke's cheeks were flushed with heat, a different kind of chill poisoned his veins and infected his bones. It was like a realization of something dawning over him, but he didn't know what. It turned his blood cold and made his limbs stiff, his shoulders tense and his stomach flutter.

Sasuke held his arm out to stop the blond and shrugged the gun bag onto the ground, landing with a heavy thump and hollow clanks. He unzipped it to reveal a multitude of lacquered and matte black and silver guns, hand-sized and some nearly as long as his leg.

"Okay," Sasuke mumbled to himself and rummaged around the bag, tossing a heavy red box towards Naruto and yanking out a long, matte black gun with some sort of grip on its nose and a long magazine.

"Shotgun," the raven pointed towards the gun and raised an eyebrow. "Pump shotgun, to be exact," he set the nose on the ground and moved the grip down, flicking a safety button off hiding under it. "You would use your other hand to do this," the boy abruptly shoved the gun into the air and quickly jolted it down, the pump loudly clicking into place and making a ringing metallic sound. "When it goes up, it's pulling a round to get ready to shoot, when it goes down…" Naruto nodded to Sasuke's instruction and fumbled a bit when the other boy lifted the gun his uninjured shoulder and held it straight out. "Aim with your right eye. And I mean it when I say tense up, these have a lot of recoil."

The shotgun was pushed into Naruto's arms and he fiddled with it for a moment, intimidated of the obviously military-exclusive weapon. "Keep your eyes open for anything and you'll have target practice on that anything."

His bottom lip quivered at the thought of shooting another animal down. If it was rabid and doing something bad, like, a raccoon nosing through their food, then yeah, he'd be okay to shoot it for being a pest. But if it was just hopping around in its habitat like the bunny on his back and munching on growth, then he'd rather just leave it in peace. The blond contemplated closing his eyes so that he wouldn't have to see any approaching animals. He actually did and set his mouth in a line, following the crunches of Sasuke's feet and swallowing roughly.

They continued on like that for a good five minutes before he heard the raven let loose an exasperated sigh. "If you really don't want to shoot any animals, we can turn left into the town and look for Katons. It doesn't matter either way because they're both productive."

Naruto pursed his lips and gave Sasuke a sheepish look. The other boy's face was neutral and he looked somewhere around being bored.

"We don't have to…" he said, maybe a bit quicker than he would have preferred. He rubbed the rubber padding of the shotgun against his shoulder. They honestly didn't need to go that far out of the woods just because Naruto didn't want to shoot a few damn bunnies or deer. He could deal with it, honestly. Especially with Sasuke's injury, he didn't want to put any more strain on the boy than there already was.

The raven stared at him for a bit and strolled to the right. "There's enough snow for a bit of tracks, but you have to look closely."

And they walked. How long, Naruto didn't know, but he was alerted when Sasuke practically pounced on him and hushed him from his upcoming protests. The boy pointed at a small family of reindeer, whose father looked especially intimidating with humongous horns and visible, rippling beef under his hide. His children grazed with still-shaky knees and made strange clicking sounds with their throats. The mother's character, the blond fantasized, would be the kind of caring stay-at-home mom but at times could turn into a vicious demon. She certainly looked it.

Sasuke nudged him and nodded to the gun, quickly turning back to observe the family with hawk eyes. The two baby reindeer were already jittery enough and if Naruto didn't take a shot soon, then they would see the pair.

He made slow, quiet movements. The gun was light and already loaded. He pressed the butt against his shoulder and remembered that Sasuke had said to tense up seriously. He did just that and aimed at the father's stomach with his finger that was cuddled into the ironically small trigger of the gun.

Even with his heavier body weight and tensed position, when he pulled the trigger he jerked back slightly and winced when metal dug into the meat of his shoulder painfully. The bullet grazed the father's back and rung volumes into the atmosphere, rippling through miles and trapping the terrified ears of his children and their mother.

The buck didn't move. His family was a blur in the forest though, ruffling plants and upchucking dirt and leaves and snow. A drop of blood slipped down its brown hide and he turned his head ever so slowly to stare at Naruto and Sasuke.

For a few moments, they stared at each other. Naruto didn't know what was going on. Sasuke tensed up and tried to foresee if the buck was going to run away, or…

The buck didn't run away. It did something similar, though. It stood up on its hind legs, nearly seven feet now, swung its monstrous, branchy horns in the air and waved its front hooves in a declaration of war. A high, loud keening call escaped his throat and he thundered to all fours and dug them into the dirt.

"Oh, _shit," _Sasuke hissed and grabbed the blond's arm. "Run!"

He screeched when the boy nearly tore off his arm and earned a screech back from the buck just a few feet behind him. "Oh my-"

"_Run!" _Sasuke yelled this time and sprinted ahead of him, darting under branches and maneuvering around rocks and leaping over snarled roots. Naruto grimaced and followed in his lead, arching his back when he heard skittering hooves and deep pounds in the dirt behind him as well as heavy, misty breathing.

And damn, Sasuke was a fast runner. He was sure the boy ran in his free time. The raven was at least five feet in front of him and looked like he was restraining himself.

"Why did we do that!" He yelled and picked up his pace, not daring to glance behind him and be met with plant root horns and spitting nose.

"_We?" _Sasuke questioned and waved his arm in the air. "You're the one that shot! You should have aimed better!"

"It was my first time!" Naruto argued. Now they were sprinting side by side and the reindeer made another whiny sound deep in its throat. "The real question is, _why is it chasing us_?"

"You pissed it off!"

"It's not my fault! Maybe he's just a pissy reindeer. Are you a pissy r-"

"Don't talk to it," Sasuke growled, contemplated punching Naruto in the face to leave him behind and glanced behind them. "Shit. He won't be slowing down for a while."

"What the fuck!" he yelled and pumped his feet faster, almost tripping over a rock. "Shouldn't we distract it?"

"Just wait for him to bleed out, it won't take that much longer-"

The buck whined in protest to that statement and pounded his hooves more heavily into the ground, albeit slower than they were before.

"Kami!"

"Naruto," Sasuke groused and scrunched his fine eyebrows together. "If this is how it ends for both of us, and we get speared on his horns… I just wanted you to know…"

His own eyebrows untangled as he awaited those words from the raven. Would it be some of their friendship? Or thanks for his heroic acts, or his awesome personality? Or when he stood up for him against Itachi? And distracted him from Kakashi's scarring perverted remarks? And kicked Suigetsu out of the showers when he-

"That this is _your entire fault." _

"Eh?! It's not my fault! I swear it's not!"

Sasuke didn't reply and he winced when he felt the cold against his straight teeth and numb his cheeks. Snow was falling into his eyes and melting on the areas of his skin that his clothes didn't cover. His breaths were becoming increasingly heavier and his throat felt like broken glass, but on the positive side his shoulder was throbbing from his running and shifting. Great. He hoped the damn reindeer tripped over a root and broke its damn legs.

And they were already halfway back to the camp. The buck obviously wasn't giving up his chase, and Sasuke glanced back to see a generous amount of blood pouring over its sides and matting its hide. Once he got a closer look, he discovered that the buck was meaty, but it was mangy and had various bugs crawling in its fur. He sneered and turned around to let Naruto lead their party.

"There's a big branch up there," the blond panted. "I'll hold it up for you, and then you duck under it so that he gets stunned. I'll count to three."

"Okay," he breathed. "Keep running after that, too. He might chase us again."

Naruto seemed to ignore him in favor of yelling, "One."

Their feet pounded against the ground and their exhausting breaths mingled with those of a frustrated reindeer.

"Two."

The reindeer keened again and its hooves sounded like they were making foot-deep craters in the earth. Sasuke's lungs were numb, but at the same time they felt like they had been lit on fire.

"Three."

He ducked, squatting and nearly tripping his own feet when the frozen ground in front of him focused for the first time in a while. Sasuke heard a screech and a thump before recollecting himself and following Naruto through the dense woods.

They ran for a few more minutes until their steps retreated to a jog, then a prance, and finally they were walking. Naruto fell to his knees and rolled over to his back, wheezing and closing his eyes. The raven set his right hand against the rough bark of a tree and set his forehead against it, panting and trying to will the throbbing in his shoulder to stop.

Sasuke's throat burned as he dragged oxygen through it, telling himself to breathe slower and to calm down. His brother had put through his head that everything that was remotely risky was a close call to death. He stuffed his face in his sweater and tried to get some feeling into it. His lips were surely blue and the fact that the wind had picked up against them didn't help.

He hugged his arm closer to himself as his heartbeat settled to a heavy throb in his throat and ears. He tried to think of something else rather than how his whole body hurt, and that it was too cold. The raven focused on Naruto's slowing breaths and hoped that the idiot wasn't falling asleep or something like that.

Sasuke slowly turned and leant on the tree, letting his head fall back and sliding down the trunk. Naruto had his forearm over his face and a hand on his stomach, with his chest rising at a normal pace.

"Ready?" the raven grumbled.

"Yeah," Naruto replied and rolled to his stomach, lifting himself up and standing shakily. Sasuke used his cramping thighs to stand up and shuffle towards the blond, raking a hand through his hair to dislodge some flakes of snow.

"Let's head back."

* * *

A/N: Such a busy week! I tried to get this up as fast as possible for you guys, but the work is raining down hard on me as it seems my teachers have conspired against us. I kind of split this chapter in half, just to give you guys something to read, I guess? This chapter was pretty fluffy, but I toned down the sweet with that wild reindeer. :p Did you guys like this chapter, like Sasuke and Naruto bonding a bit? I've gotta go, but if you guys have any questions, drop onein the reviews or in the tumblr I linked in my bio! I've only made a few posts and it's kind of a mix of random things, but I'll try to center it around the Naruto fandoms' posts and my own updated. See ya next week!


	11. Disrupted Formation

Chapter 10: Disrupted Formation

* * *

Something in the back of his slumbering mind snapped its fingers and pulled on a thin thread. It yanked at his consciousness and pulled him into the recesses of his mind, filled with few memories and most of the few being Sasuke. Naruto was standing in a completely white, endless room with a standard window allowing a view of black in front of him.

He blinked heavily and glanced around him, surrounded by different volumes and colors of smoky and solid white to eggshell and cream white. He glanced down at his tanned hands. They looked the same size as they were when he was awake, with long fingers and wide palms and nubby nails. Then he bent over looked down at his bare feet, his left big toe with a scar that looked like a walking person. His eyes traveled higher over his calves and knees with the fuzzy blond hairs on them, gradually turning to a dark blond as he reached his upper thighs and – oh shit, he was naked. How had he not noticed that before?

He stood straight up and looked around, making sure that he was alone and setting his hands on his hips. What was he doing here? And why the hell was he naked?

Suddenly, the window in front of him jerked and he nearly screamed when he saw his own reflection in it. No, it wasn't a reflection, it was actually _himself. _Another completely solid copy on the other side of the glass, in the same nudity but with scarlet irises.

It dully stared at him, appearing apathetic but contradicting itself when its knuckled turned white on the latch of the windowsill. The window shook again and expanded like rubber, like a rock had been thrown at it but the glass didn't crack, only morphed around a sphere and reverted back to its original shape. It shuddered under another invisible pressure and screeched when the biceps of his copy rippled underneath his skin and pressed harder on the sill, keeping the window from coming out. A few more dings and scratches echoed from the glass of the window, some of them gentle and some harsh. The other Naruto blinked slowly and the pangs and squeals behind the glass only got louder and more frequent. The glass was morphing around invisible objects, some obviously rocks and some too intricate to identify. It flared his nostrils and a loud _bam! _engulfed the area around him and another face was pressed against the window. Naruto scrambled to cover his own nudity, but-

It was Gaara. He was clothed, but in a sand-colored tank top and military pants. He shoved against the other Naruto, but he didn't budge, only put more of his weight on the opening of the window and kept it shut. Gaara shouted something at the copy, so infuriated that his eyes squinted and his neck flushed red. The redhead shoved at its stomach, punched at its arms and face, even attempted to strangle him but the other Naruto stood his ground and didn't flinch a single time. Gaara turned to the real him, pointed, and yelled something violently at him that he couldn't hear. Glass morphed around him like raindrops falling sideways and he only turned redder and redder, a vein popping out in his forehead and matching his sea green eyes. He was shoved to the side and sobbing Sakura pressed her face into the glass beside him, also pushing at the copy and yelling what he could read as obscenities and trying to elbow her way to the other side. Both her and Gaara were banging on the window, but it only allowed the deep thumps of their effort. Sakura shook her first at him, appearing to take a violent approach at first but leaning against the window to beg him for something that he couldn't hear. A girl with long, black hair and slanted eyes materialized behind the three and stood calmly. She only smiled at him and moved to the side when Jiraiya and Tsunade appeared, looking grim and concerned. They mouthed something to him that he couldn't read and gestured gently, Tsunade widening her arms and slowly wording, _open. _

Naruto's eyes widened when long knives were thrown at the glass, as well as bullet rounds and some kind of gold material. The copy's jaw clenched and a sheen of sweat had formed on his face, shaking his head _no, no, no_ and panting through its gritted teeth. Neji appeared behind Tsunade and shoved her out of the way to punch the window's glass and yell something at the Naruto on his side. Neji's forehead filled with bright blue veins and he obviously cursed the copy out, trying to elbow him out of the way and failing. He only clenched his eyes shut and kept shaking his head _no_, visibly groaning and settling more of his weight on the window opening. Neji clawed at his wrists and the copy spat in his face.

Something different began behind the window. Before it was desperate, now it was… violent. Person after person appeared, Kiba, Chouji, Ino, men and boys he didn't recognize, but never Sasuke or Kakashi or anyone of his recent group. All of the figures were shouting at the Naruto of their side, scratching his back and smacking his face when a fine tear of pain ran down his cheek. They were trying to yank him away from the window, shove him into it, _anything _to get them through. But he only shook his head and silently shouted _No! No! No! _as his face turned purple and the veins in his arms jutted out and his torso muscles clenched painfully.

And finally, finally, something came through the window. It was the copy's gravelly voice, his own, in despair.

"Don't remember!" he screamed and opened watery red eyes, piercing him with his gaze and holding him in place. "No! You don't want to! Fight it!"

In the background of his words, screams could be heard from the others. Sakura was screaming and clawing at the rubber window, trying to kick and punch her way through it but to no avail. It was a painful sight, and even more so because he didn't even understand what was going on.

"_Naruto!" _ she sobbed, raw and wretched.

"Stop it!" his copy yelled and let out a short, painful scream that made his Adam's apple protrude dangerously and bob. "Don't! Get out!" His face was dark red and there were fresh, hot tears rolling down his cheeks, hitting his arms and pooling around his slipping fingers, "Leave, dammit! Don't think about it! Naruto, _go!"_

It was then that Gaara reached his hand through a pane of the glass, morphing around his wrist and his forearm. Everything behind the redhead went silent and everybody behind it stood still as the copy of him slumped against the window. His bicep fit through the pane, as well as his shoulder. He held his hand out to Naruto, pained and pleading. He clawed his hand and stretched the glass around his fingers, clenching again so that it thinned around his nails. He fisted his fingers three more times before the glass seemed to melt around the protruding nail of his index finger. Gaara pointed the small amount of his free finger at the blond, nostrils flared and growled one word:

_Remember._

* * *

Naruto shot up in his sleeping bag, nearly falling to the side because it was still zipped. His hands frantically searched for the zipper and almost ripped it off when he found it, throwing it off of him and kneeling.

His head was aching and spinning and the backs of his gums were tense like he was going to throw up. He did feel nauseated, but set his sweaty forehead on the tent floor and wheezed his breaths in. The blond only slept in his boxers and a long sleeved shirt, and that he peeled up to his shoulders to cool his heated flesh in the cold winter night air. It was obviously the time of night where everybody was in the middle of their sleep. He waited for his head to stop spiraling and his limbs to stop cramping, concentrating on breathing. The blond's sweat had dried on his back and neck, and his breathing was normal now, though he sighed weakly.

Naruto pushed himself up on shaky hands and wavered in his standing position. His limbs were shaking and his side of the tent was a mess with tangled blankets and his sleeping bag thrown to the side. Sasuke was sleeping peacefully on his back, face illuminated by dim moonlight, whispering something in his sleep. He stared at the raven for a bit, watched how his chest rose gently and slowly under his blankets and how he would subtly shift every few moments.

He managed to reach his sleeping bag and lay it out right next to Sasuke. Naruto dragged his four heavy blankets beside it and shimmied into the bag, shrugging the blankets on top of himself and turning on his left side to face Sasuke. The blond put the crown of his head against the boy's shoulder and gripped his blankets closer to him, watching the shadows of his fingers against his hip and biting his lip.

He spent the rest of the night listening to the sound of Sasuke's gentle intakes of air and sighs when he let them go.

* * *

When Sasuke's eyelids inched open, they were assaulted with warm sunlight. He shut them closed again and wished for another gloomy day so that his irises wouldn't ache. The tent was warm, nearly overbearingly so. He shifted away from the ray of sunlight that had decided to shine in his face and shoved a blanket over his head.

Pale eyelids slid shut again and attempted to surrender to dreams, but something nudged him in the arm and stayed there. Sasuke dismissed it as Naruto's foot in one of his weird sleeping positions and scooted father away from him, wishing he could sleep on his left side and sighing heavily. He wondered how his bones were doing.

Naruto's foot nudged him again and seemed to rub his shoulder. Sasuke growled and ripped the blanket off of his face, sitting up and bracing to snap the other boy's ankle. He was surprised when he was greeted with a head of mussed blond hair and tired cobalt eyes buried into his side. He still had that habit of sleeping in his boxers, Sasuke noted, and a shirt that he had never seen before.

"Hi."

The raven studied Naruto's face and tightened his lips. "What are you doing?"

Naruto rolled onto his stomach and looked to the corner of the tent, smashing his cheek against the ground and shrugging. "Couldn't sleep."

Sasuke felt the warmth of Naruto leave him and noticed that the tent wasn't warm, just the blond. He was still numbly staring at a stray sock hidden in one of the tent's corners and had delicate bags under his eyes. Maybe he had a nightmare, or even Itachi had given him a scare?

Sasuke lowered himself back onto the ground and faced Naruto, relaxing into his plush blankets. "What's with you?"

"Nothing," the blond replied, perhaps a bit too quickly and harshly. "I just… got cold."

"Got cold," Sasuke deadpanned and gave him a tired glare. "You were head-butting me so hard that it scooted me over because you _got cold_."

Blue eyes traveled over to him and pale eyebrows lifted. "Yes?"

This time, Sasuke didn't say anything. He just narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips into a glare and waited for the other boy to crack under the pressure and spill every single thing that had bothered him, like he usually did. Naruto was an open book, and if he refused to open, he read most of his pages within a few seconds of a glare that Sasuke wondered if he was just planning what to say the whole time.

Naruto clenched his eyes shut and inched his way closer to Sasuke again, slamming his head into his side again and grumbling, "I had a nightmare."

"You want me to be momma bear?" Sasuke mocked and harshly tugged at a blond lock.

"Don't make fun of me, dammit!" Naruto said, muffled into his side and slightly tickling him when his voice rose and vibrations could be felt. "It was scary."

The raven hummed and let his heavy eyelids shut, sighing and resting his hand atop the blond head. "What was it?" he murmured.

Naruto played with the loose ends of his cotton sleep shirt as he retold his dream, whispering the whole way through and appreciating it when Sasuke's nails would gently dig into his skull.

"Why did it scare you?" he questioned.

"Because," he started and slightly fumbled with his words, "I told me not to remember."

"I like your English," Sasuke chuckled and raked his fingers through golden tendrils.

Naruto allowed the corners of his lips to quirk up.

"But, I think you're supposed to listen to your dreams, or take them seriously, or something like that," the raven groused and rubbed his eyes. "Can we go back to sleep?"

"Am I not supposed to remember?" Naruto wondered aloud and poked his friend in the side to keep him awake.

"I would say no," Sasuke replied and turned to face him. "Everything behind that window looked pretty painful, hm?"

"Yeah."

"Can we go to sleep _now? _I'll gladly strangle you so that you can sleep, if you want me to. Correction. If _I _want to."

Naruto snickered into Sasuke's stomach. "I didn't ask for this sass, Sasuke. Where is this coming from?"

"Sleep deprivation."

"But wait, I wanted to talk_-_"

"Oh, Kami," Sasuke groaned and turned his head. "All you _do _is talk."

"Hey! At least that's not the only thing I can do!" Naruto yelled and propped himself up on his elbows.

"You-"

"_Shut the fuck up!"_ Kiba slurred from the tent beside them, followed by a drowsy bark from Akamaru. "It's too damn early for this, get your panties outta that twist!"

The raven sighed into his pillow and wished to roll on his stomach. "Go to sleep, Naruto."

Said boy sighed. "Will you share a blanket with me?"

"No," Sasuke snorted and leaned on his elbow. "I told you I wasn't playing-"

Naruto shoved his blankets off of him so that he was only in his unzipped sleeping bag, sweatpants, and sweater. Sasuke was just about to gripe at him before a new set of thicker blankets were wrapped around him and the blond nudged his head under his arm.

They were both silent for a few moments. It wasn't that bad, Sasuke considered, roasting in the warmth and discreetly curling closer to the other boy. But something else caught his attention.

"This isn't 'sharing a blanket'," he grumbled. "This is sharing blanket_s_."

"Was that a snake?" the blond deadpanned. "I heard a hiss."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and shifted his cramped legs. He always got damned body cramps in his sleep, he thought, and gritted his teeth at a rather nasty one currently in his calves.

"Just shut up and sleep," he grumbled, rested his head to the left and stretched out his legs. Naruto was heavenly warm and his eyelids felt like they weighed tons in his presence.

"I think you need it almost more than I do," the blond whispered, right by his ear.

As another couple of hours passed by, Naruto memorized how pale fingers would clench and grab during sleep, cold feet strongly kicked at his legs every once in a while, pale lips would part and move. There were many failed attempts to roll onto a left side and after those would be heavy sighs and frustrated rolling, hogging of blankets and unaware punches thrown if he tried to get them back. There was even a point where Sasuke had sat straight up, gazed at him through half lidded irises, and then flop back down to curl closer to him. The sneaky bastard (sneaky _sleeping _bastard, he thought) would pretend to shift in his sleep and somehow icy cold heels would be pressed under his shirt. At one point he gave up trying to get rid of them and let the raven leech at his body heat.

A different kind of dim light filled the tent, the silvery winter sun. It had to be nearing noon now, and Sasuke was still breathing as deeply as he had been all night and sighing just as heavily. He knew the boy had a bit of things to do, or not, and if he didn't do them his brother would, without complaint.

Naruto poked his friend's belly. A dark eyebrow only twitched.

"Sasuke," he whispered and set his hand on a pale forehead. His eyelids stopped in their fluttering and both brows twitched, tried to shrug his hand off. The raven yanked his head away from his hand and hogged the blankets once again, nuzzling into his pillow and wincing.

"Wha'?" he groused and kept his eyes shut.

"Wake up," Naruto bit his lip to hold back a snicker.

"No," he moaned and scooted away from the blond, hid his face in a blanket and tried to go back to sleep.

"It's almost noon."

"I don't care. Let me sleep."

"But you've slept for too long! It's had to be, like, over twelve hours now!"

"_Naruto!_" a female voice screamed from their "living room" in the camp. He frowned and turned to the voice, then looked back at Sasuke.

"If you don't leave, I'm going to snap your neck."

Naruto timidly shrugged his legs into his jeans and tiptoed out of their tent, setting his finger in front of the zipper as he closed it so that it wouldn't make noise. He struggled to gather his boots in the disarrayed order they were in from the hurried and exhausted manner he and Sasuke had come home in. Jiraiya had cackled away when Naruto explained what had happened with the buck and Kakashi had cuddled the rabbit and praised him. The others seemed to be lazing around at that time, with an empty plate on their laps and their heads lolling and eyes drooping. Naruto had yet to see the boy named Shikamaru actually awake, only having seen him on cloud nine by the fire, on cloud nine by the tents, on cloud nine leaning against a tree… Kami.

Karin beckoned him over with a granola bar wrapper by her side and leaning against Juugo. Sakura stopped chattering at her when she caught sight of him and gave him a small smile.

"Good morning, ladies!" He stretched his arms behind his head and grinned. "What brings to call me on this fine d-"

The blond was cut off when he received a sharp smack to the back of his skull and cradled it in his hands. "What the-"

"Knock it off, Naruto," Sakura scolded and set her small hands on her hips. "I grew up with you, you fucking idiot."

"Hey! Why is everybody-"

"Is Sasuke still sleeping?" Karin interrupted and scrunched her nose.

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto crossed his arms. "I tried to wake him up, but he doesn't want to! It's been half a day-"

"Good. Let him. He always needs to sleep in like that whenever he gets injured," she informed and poked him in the chest, giving him a stink eye. "You leave him be. You two follow each other around like lost puppies, but Sasuke needs to heal and you're only slowing him down if you pester him."

Part of Karin's lecture had stung and he only pursed his lips in offense. Bummer that Sasuke would sleep most of the day. Actually, kind of upsetting that he wouldn't have his smart friend around to poke conversations with and ask questions. "You didn't need to be so snippy," he grumbled.

"You've always been a big baby," Sakura teased and squeezed his bicep. "Always eating nearly half of the camp's reserves."

He frowned down at her. Was it Blame Everything on Naruto and Make Fun of Him While You're At It Day? He had thought it was just Sasuke being dramatic and Karin being a girl! Now he just felt like sitting in silence with Juugo for the rest of the day.

Now a small congregation had formed around him, chattering and flipping their hair. The girls! He had gotten stuck in the middle and they were all poking at his body and commenting on how he had slimmed out, complimenting how good-looking he had come to be and prodding him with a few questions here and there. The blond glanced over to the group parallel to them, consisting of most of the younger guys, minus Shikamaru and Gaara. Even Itachi had managed to inch his way near them, turning through a book and constantly brushing his shoulder-length hair out of his face. Kiba pointed to him and snickered to Chouji, who in turn nudged Konohamaru and soon created a whole group of chortling guys making kissy faces and pretending to flip their hair.

Naruto cringed and awkwardly gaped when Ino asked a rather personal question about Sasuke. That triggered a whole new string of questions being fired at him, centered on his aloof friend.

"What's Sasuke's favorite color?" Sakura screeched.

Naruto grinned and yelled back, "Pink!"

Tenten scolded him for lying and rolled her eyes when he tried to convince her that he wasn't.

"Sasuke seems like the sensitive brooding type," Sakura analyzed. "It sounds pretty true to me."

"Just tell us the _good _stuff," Ino scoffed and held a hand in the air dramatically. "Just tell us how big his-"

"_Kami, _Ino! Have you ever heard of boundaries?!" Tenten cried.

"Shut up! I was going to say feet! _Feet!"_ she screeched and flushed red.

"I'm _so_ sure," Sakura rolled her eyes and shifted her weight to one foot. "You already know what they say. Shoe size equals-"

"That's a lie!"

"If you must know," Naruto pretended to cough into his hand to hide a smile. "His shoe size is five and a half!" He kept his face straight but his shoulders shook in betrayal.

"What?!"

"Are you serious?"

"No! He's lying! He hasn't changed at all. Look at him, with that stupid grin he always has when he-"

"My, my, what is going on over here?" Kakashi crept over them like a scarecrow and smiled. "Sasu's shoe size? If you're in dismay… you must know that it's a fourteen."

"What the hell is this? All you men tell is _lies!_"

Naruto was full out laughing now, clutching his stomach and throwing his head back. He earned a few (rather harsh, damn, did Sakura work out?) punches to his chest and arms for it. Kakashi chuckled beside him and rubbed his head as the blond winced and rubbed at his sore spots.

"I'm asking you to be honest, Naruto," Sakura growled. "What's his actual shoe size?"

Karin pushed herself into their little circle and set her hand on her propped hip. "He's an eight," she announced.

"That's so cute!" Sakura giggled. "What are his-"

Naruto took advantage of the girls' distraction to slide out of their circle and tiptoe over to the guys, grinning when he succeeded. Kiba grinned crookedly and nodded his head back, "Gettin' pampered by the girls, eh?"

"No," the blond scoffed and rolled his eyes, started a bit when Lee jogged by and created a ruckus in the woods. He plopped down next to Konohamaru and rested his arms on the log he was leaning on, stretching his neck and legs.

"Naruto," Konohamaru timidly started. "Do you remember who we all are?"

The question took him by shock and he felt slightly guilty to think about it. Sure, he could name the members of this camp with a bit of difficulty. He struggled to remember the plump boy's name sitting across from him, and the dude with the sunglasses next to him. He had only remembered Shikamaru's name when he had tried to make Sasuke laugh and had ended up laughing at his own joke. "_Sleep-amaru!" _he had whispered, then started cackling to himself when the raven only narrowed his dark eyes at the blond. In Naruto's defense, it had been pretty damn late and he was tired. That was his excuse for his cracky jokes.

But, answering it was a bit more awkward. What should he call them, his friends, or his comrades? He had only recovered a vague memory of a much younger Kiba and Gaara, someone who looked like Sasuke and a vivid one of Sakura. It was difficult to rekindle relationships with people you had apparently already had one with.

"Uh," the blond swallowed. "You're my old comrades?"

Silence. Everyone in the pit stared blankly at him, some sympathetic, and some angry, like Neji. Even Itachi had looked up from his beat up collection of written plays and raised an eyebrow. Shit, wrong thing to say, should have said _friends_. Why did he have to add "old"? His palms broke out in a sweat and his brow furrowed. Kami! He really was fucking things up around here.

"I'm sorry," he tried to clean up the mess he had made, but he didn't know how to use words correctly. Naruto played with his fingers in his lap and discreetly wiggled his toes, the back of his neck burning.

"It's okay, Naruto," Shino broke the awkward silence. "We don't blame you."

"Actually," Neji stood with a wide stance and let his defined and handsome features align into a sneer. "I do. I don't believe a single word that comes out of your mouth, Naruto," his voice rose steadily. "or any of the other's mouths from that group of Kakashi's. They're untrustworthy and you're corrupted, Naruto, whether you know it or not. That makes all of you untrustworthy."

Naruto's jaw worked and he openly gaped at the brunet, standing tall and _stuck up_ before a bunch of crumpled food wrappers. "_Woah_, what the hell is your problem? We haven't even done anything that's 'untrustworthy'," he imitated Neji.

"It's in your best interest to keep your ignorant mouth _shut,_" Itachi had thrown his book off to the side and risen to his full height, standing nose-to-nose with Neji, just taller than him by a mere centimeter or two. "None of us need a vagrant around here. A child, to be exact."

"It's in your best interest to remember that you're a guest here," Neji spat and locked his pale eyes with the dark ones of the Uchiha. "As well as the rest of your group."

Itachi didn't reply, but he didn't falter from his stance. In a way, Neji was almost like a mirror of him had he not asked Sasuke to cut his hair, their color schemes switched a bit.

"Neji," a smaller voice too delicate to be one of their gender, "please stop."

Said boy's eyes widened and he turned to look down at Hinata. His cousin looked ashamed and maybe even disappointed in him, clasping her hands together and pursing her lips.

"Please apologize, Neji," she whispered to him and tucked a long lock of black hair behind her ear. "You're talking to Naruto the way you're talking to Itachi-san."

The brunet's strong jaw clenched and he remained silent, locking his gaze with his cousin's and fisting his hands. She waited patiently for him to apologize. When Neji held his ground, she shut her eyes and meekly turned her back to him, shaking her head as she walked to greet her friends. Hinata was just about to breach hearing distance.

"My apologies," he deadpanned and stared straight at Naruto with icy gray irises. "To any member of your group I may have offended."

_Neji's a douche_, Naruto thought to himself and pursed his lips. Maybe he really should have slept in with Sasuke this morning. He would have avoided a shitload of drama. Actually, he just might sneak back into the tent and catnap like his friend. Naruto needed rest, too!

The brunet stalked away and Itachi tilted his head to the side. From a side angle, Naruto could easily mistake the man for Sasuke, had they been the same size and had the same hair length. The only differences in their looks were, of course, Itachi having slightly darker skin and lighter hair.

An awkward silence hung over their group and Akamaru barked some distance away. The girl's chatter created a soft hum in the background and Konohamaru coughed lightly, slowly rising and trudging into the woods. Kiba made an excuse about having to talk to Tsunade about something, Shino and Chouji following him when the boy walked away. Now the blond stood awkwardly with Itachi, who was still staring in the direction that Neji had stormed off into.

"You," Itachi said, tilting his head down when he addressed Naruto and shuffled in closer to him. "Watch my little brother when I am not around. A few members of this group are suspicious…"

Naruto waited for the man to finish, but he never did. "Well, okay," he replied. "Who's fishy?"

"That doesn't matter right now. What only matters is that their hunter is returning tonight, someone who can easily be a spy," Itachi spat. "He's gone for periods of time that he can use to travel to a Sector and relay our whereabouts."

"Well," Naruto raised his eyebrows and squared his shoulders. "I will."

The man only narrowed his eyes at the blond and walked away.

* * *

That night, the whole group minus Jiraiya huddled around the fire to share dinner. It was the first time Naruto had seen Shikamaru awake, and the boy looked exhausted despite how much he already slept. His head lolled over his plate every once in a while, but then he shook himself awake and lazily chewed on rice.

Sasuke had resurrected from his death-like sleep, cranky and hungry. He got bombarded with questions from Sakura as he chewed on a piece of chicken, glaring into the fire and ignoring every single one.

"Sasuke, can you hear me?" she asked him and moved her hand dangerously close to his thigh over the grass. Sakura had a friendly smile on her face, clean and with her hair brushed straight down her jaw.

"No," he deadpanned and shoved a spoonful of stale rice into his mouth.

Naruto pursed his lips when he overheard this, sneaking a few pieces of chicken off of the raven's plate when he looked away. He had his body turned to his friend, shielding himself from the burning rays of Gaara's stare. What the hell was that guy's problem? Naruto understood that they had been close during their time as a group, but that wasn't a reason to stare at him whenever he possibly could. He should have taken an approach like Sakura, awkwardly rekindling a relationship they already had.

The blond watched Chouji wolf down a frightening amount of chicken and Akamaru steal some pieces from everybody's plate. Ino screamed when the dog swallowed her paper plate whole.

Naruto slumped over his plate and played with a few pieces of artificial carrot. He felt like, in this camp, it was too crowded, and unorganized unlike Kakashi's group. Their small group had been cozy and in order, supervised and close-knit. This group was loud, prone to internal arguments with pricks like Neji and vulnerable with their large number.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when Jiraiya whooped from the entrance of the camp and dragged forward a small figure, a wide variety of animals in his wake. Naruto couldn't see the man's face from where he was sitting. The majority of the group yelled and huddled around him, thanking and congratulating him for his hunts and catches and audibly clapping him on the back. The voice it belonged to murmured something and the group around him roared in laughter.

"Man, is that part of a cow?" Kiba wheezed and eyed a lump that Naruto could only see part of. "Haven't had a burger since I was a kid! Where the hell have you _been,_ dude? You got the mother load!"

"Thank you," the deep voice replied and some of the group moved away to allow the blond a partial view. "I found them on the outskirts of Two and Three."

Since it had turned into a casual conversation with Kiba, people returned to their food and rejoiced the new meat. Naruto took in what he could see behind the bright glare of circular glasses. Ratty gray hair in a short ponytail, small in build…

"You're saving our asses out here, Kabuto," Kiba clapped the man on the back and grinned crookedly. "Don't know what we'd do without ya."

When Kabuto turned to lock gazes with Naruto, his blood turned to ice.

The glare wiped itself from his glasses and he stared into the empty onyx eyes behind them. The man made something in his gut itch and the fact that he had a generous assortment of knives on his back didn't help one bit. Kabuto smirked lightly and tilted his head back, giving the blond a view of his grimy and blood-crusted neck.

"Naruto," he drawled. "Fancy having you back."

He swallowed dryly when the man let his eyes inch over Sasuke and Juugo, Karin and Suigetsu, Kakashi and then Itachi. The men locked eyes dangerously and a different kind of tension stretched over their gathering.

"Hello," he droned and slung his pack of knives to the ground. "I am Kabuto, this group's hunter."

Sasuke ignored the man in favor of paying attention to his rice. Suigetsu hollered out his own and Juugo's introduction, chugging his large water bottle and belching. Kakashi politely shook his hand and complimented his gathering skills.

Kabuto smirked again and rested his gaze on the empty one of Itachi's. "I believe," he started and sat in front of the crackling fire. "That we were in the same rank at military ed, back in One."

Sasuke stopped chewing to focus on eavesdropping into the conversation, finally hearing something from Itachi's own childhood besides what he vaguely disclosed.

"I don't recall," Itachi droned and set his elbows on his knees, letting his silky hair fall from behind his shoulders. "Must have been in a different class."

"We were both in class A, Itachi Uchiha," Kabuto set his fist under his chin and smirked. "Defied the rule of short hair, number one in our rank… and certainly one for the ladies." He chuckled.

Sasuke raised his brows and set his fork on his plate, letting Naruto continue taking pieces off the plate that he pretended to not notice. He wasn't very hungry in the first place. When he was little, he thought that military ed had allowed Itachi's long hair. It felt odd to know that Itachi hadn't obeyed, and their parents had let him. It wasn't surprising to know that Itachi had been first in their rank, though, but being a "ladies man" was. Sasuke couldn't even imagine a twelve year old Itachi flirting with his female classmates and reciprocating flirtatious actions. Itachi really had changed a lot, he thought.

Itachi snorted and didn't move. "I don't recall that either."

"It's hard not to recall the famous Uchiha brothers, six and eleven," Kabuto nodded to Sasuke and barely smiled. "Always hearing about their success… it was tiring. Shame such a large family had to be exterminated."

Maybe, in another situation, what Kabuto said might have been considered as dry humor. But the way the man said it made goose bumps run down the back of Sasuke's neck. Maybe, had the man cut out their ages and observations of Itachi and the jab at their family, it wouldn't have been creepy. Maybe, if Kabuto wasn't looking at Itachi like a scientist at a virus through a microscope, Sasuke wouldn't have felt in danger.

But Itachi said nothing. He stared past Kabuto into the woods behind them and stayed silent, the fire flickering and pronouncing the bags under his eyes. Kabuto's face grew from a small smirk into a smile, hidden from the rest of the group who couldn't even tell that anything was askew.

"Nice talk," Kabuto mocked and stood. The man kicked a pebble that landed at his brother's feet and slowly turned to join the rest of the group.

* * *

A/N: -growls heartily- The Walking Dead comes back tonight. I am ready.

On a normal note, I hope you all liked this chap. Ended with kind of a cliffie. Remember, if you have anything to ask me or want to be my first follower, check out my tumblr in my bio!


	12. Restoring Force

Chapter 11: Restoring Force

* * *

Itachi glared at the back of the other man's heels for a few moments before he rested his eyes on his own hands clasped between his legs.

The hunter only stayed for a few days to every few months he was gaming, bringing home enough meat to last them while he was gone. Itachi looked forward to the day that he was leaving.

_Kabuto Yakushi, _he remembered, indeed in the same rank as he had been in military ed. Kabuto had been third in their rank, miniscule to Itachi's first. It was optional to start military school at age eight, or go to medical or tracking school, all clustered in one area. Indeed, he did remember the days when he was given the responsibility to pick up his little brother from the daycare across the street at a certain strict time and bring him back to school to grab his backpack.

Indeed, the few females in his ranking had taken an automatic liking to Sasuke who had been three at the time, pinching his cheeks and tickling his small stomach. He allowed the crinkling of his eyes when he remembered Sasuke's chubby cheeks and wide eyes and constant giggles. Itachi hadn't known that he was being "flirtatious" with the girls. He had just thought that answering their persistent questions about himself and offering them tutoring had been polite and normal. Itachi had, rather ignorantly, dismissed their hits as compliments towards the stiff gray military uniform. At the time, he had honestly thought that those girls appreciated how it fit him and _fit well around his muscles,_ they said.

It was only a curse that Sasuke had proven his prestige at age six to be placed in the first year of training. That first year, only terms and a few melee weapons were introduced, but mostly it was about self-reliance and control, resourcefulness and cognitive skills. That same year was when their family had been _expelled _from One.

Itachi had done the things he had for a reason. Who knew how long this expulsion, alienation was going to last. Who knew how long this war between the Sectors would last, and how many more people they were to eliminate. How many people they were going to replace for the ones they lost. The only thing they knew of were rumors. Like how abandoned military bases were inhabited by peaceful protestors, and how Four was accepting outsiders. Bullshit. This was why he needed to teach Sasuke how to be independent. They lived in an unreliable world, in the streets, off of game and old, processed food. Sasuke needed to know that he couldn't ever be spoiled. Sasuke needed to depend on himself.

But his little brother never learned. He had constantly leaned on Itachi ever since it was just then. It went from crying into his dirty shirt at seven, to being physically weak at nine and complaining about being dizzy all the time, not tall enough at ten and eleven, emotionally weak at twelve, and reclusive at thirteen. Sasuke had obviously created his own mellow personality at some point or another, but there was no need for one.

Itachi was pleased with how he turned out, though. Resourceful and quick-thinking, responsible and rational. Though he wished his brother could have inherited their ancestors' height like himself, it was just something that had to be accepted.

So that's why, Itachi thought as he stared into the dark in his tent, maybe he should be proud of his little brother. Maybe it was time to let him loose from his leash. Not exactly like that, Itachi scrunched his nose and turned to his side. But allow the boy more freedom. It wasn't like it mattered, anyway, since Sasuke had already gone against his orders and made nice with the blond boy. His name escaped Itachi at the moment. Was it Nagato? No, someone just yelled his name from the bonfire. Naruto. He had trusted Naruto, who was irritatingly always with Sasuke. Trusted him to keep an eye on his little brother and a closer one on the darker personalities at this camp.

Which is how, Itachi thought as he rested on his side and surrendered to slumber, he would keep an eye on both of them.

* * *

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched when Karin roughly threaded out another stitch from his shoulder, the long and knotted thread of it visible from where his head was positioned.

It was a disturbing feeling, actually. Skin shouldn't be tugged in these ways, and certainly not handled the way Karin was handling it currently.

"Just a few more," she grumbled and tried to pick them out quickly. "Your bone and your skin _have_ been healing fast with that serum. I think you'll be done with that sling in two or three days." Karin patted at his malleable and thin collarbone. She rolled his shoulder a few times for him and Sasuke winced when she turned it up and to the right.

Karin patted him down with -surprise, more alcohol- gauzed and slung him up and shoved him away to talk to her friends. The raven squinted at the small amount of sunlight surrounding their camp and making crystals of snow glisten. It had only fallen an inch or two, and some of it was already suspiciously yellow and covered in footprints. He groggily kicked a chunk of the stuff away from him and headed to take a peaceful, solitary walk in the woods.

Mostly, he was taking a walk to get away from the overwhelming stench of blood at the camp, just circling around. Kabuto had hunted a pile of animals nearly tall as him and left them to freeze overnight. Disgusting. Their blood and various fluids had pooled around them like putrid broth and stained the snow brown and scarlet. Chouji had begun skinning them and laying out their hides like a carpet and setting their feathers on fire, chewing on certain raw intestines and offering some to Sasuke. Sasuke, as well as most of the girls, hadn't appreciated this one bit and stalked off into different directions of their large camp. Naruto had gone a bit green and said he was going to take a powernap, trudging to their tent and audibly cussing.

Lee suddenly sprinted through his worn path in the woods a few feet in front of Sasuke, barely stopping for a few seconds to yell "Good day, great Sasuke!" before zipping by again in a cloud of snow. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and smashed a clump of snow under his boot, thinking of the things he could do before tensing his neck straight and clenching his jaw as something came to him.

He glanced back to where Lee had his retreating back turned towards Sasuke. The raven glanced back towards to tents of the camp, gun barrel unguarded and its contents shining in the dim sunlight. It seemed that everyone was either asleep or in the front of the camp, and the only way he could get out of here was to maneuver around Lee and make sure that he didn't wake Naruto up.

Sasuke casually strolled back into the boundaries of the camp, stuffing his hand inside his jean pocket and pretending to observe some melting snow. Lee was sprinting so that he could see Sasuke now, making loud crunches when his feet landed and grumbling something about success under his breath. Sasuke bent over and picked up a stray stick, tossing it into the woods and crouching behind his own tent. Naruto's light snoring could be heard through the canvas of the tent.

Sasuke waited a few more moments until Lee was rounding the corner of the camp and turned a few times until he was pressed against the left side of their tent, away from Lee. He tucked his legs as close to him as he could and hoped that Lee wouldn't notice him.

Lee bound by their tent, not looking back. Sasuke jogged to the gun barrel and slipped out a shotgun, unhooking a hand pistol from its edge and ran back into the woods with a triumphant smirk on his face. He jumped into bushes and dirt as often as he could so that his footsteps wouldn't be visible. Sasuke turned his body and tried to make his landings as quiet as possible, sometimes forced to take an extended step to reach the next green spot.

He continued like this for hours. Sasuke didn't stop until he noticed the curtain of branches that didn't allow snow in and offered green land to walk on. Even then, he traveled on top of the roots that protruded from the ground and on top of large, mossy rocks.

He didn't stop until his instincts told him to turn left. There. The same spot he and Naruto had ran by when they had been chased. Sasuke's eyes had been glued to this particular spot, a strong pull in his gut telling him to enter the slope of the parted trees and slide down to what was below.

Sasuke glanced through the circular opening of the two trees and studied the gentle slope that went about thirty five feet downwards, covered in leaves and interrupted by thick roots. Perfect. The raven clutched his shotgun to his chest and sat in between the trees, placing his feet against the closest thick root. He scooted down so that his bottom rested against the root and placed his feet against the closest root again, slowly but efficiently tracking down the slightly frozen nature.

When Sasuke jumped onto pavement, he wondered if Tsunade's group inhabiting an area so close to former civilization was on purpose, or if it was another something they chose to keep from Kakashi. He faced an eight-lane road with skyscrapers visible in the distance, obviously partially destroyed and hanging lopsidedly. The road here was covered in glass. Sasuke hitched the shotgun back over his shoulder and glanced both ways of the road, checking for Katons and jogging to the other side. There was no avoiding the loud crunches of glass under his feet.

Sasuke constantly checked if he was being tracked by Katons or soldiers. He also occasionally glanced up into the sky to see if any government drones were flying by. Really, he knew that going out like this was dangerous, but he just needed to know a few things.

He used his right arm to support himself over the bent barriers of the road, awkwardly landing and smacking his other shoulder with the gun. Sasuke winced and looked at the plaza before him, once with clean marble walkways and a lively fountain in the center. Now there were occasional ribcages decorating areas where there used to be flowers.

Sasuke glanced left to a rusty sign pointing out the subway and restaurants, some of the letters clotted over with dried blood. He turned right to a sign pointing to the city center, shops, and the community library. That was what he was looking for. But being in the center of the city, a higher amount of Katons or scouts were obviously going to be slugging around. He would have to be careful.

Slowly, he walked away from the dry fountain that he avoided looking into. A gruesome aroma was still wafting from it. Sasuke kept his eyes alert and a hand on his handgun, and then started to jog towards a crumbled pillar arch. The marble floor was slippery and he slid a foot or two when he glanced out of the arch.

The small roads were clear. There were tall buildings, rotten and chipped, crammed together and leading to a large white building with many columns and a black iron fence that was beaten down in some areas. Next to it was a slightly smaller building that looked like it was purely made of marble with hundreds of steps to its entrance, titled _North Konoha Reference Center. _On its roof was a tall column supporting a broken old-fashioned clock with Roman numerals rusting behind shattered glass. It had stopped ticking at six twelve.

Sasuke inched through the roads, peeking through the small gaps of buildings for Katons and squatting in silence to listen for them. Downtown was eerily quiet. He definitely should have seen at least the remains of the robots by now, but he didn't pay any mind to it. Sasuke wasn't being hindered. He jogged in the center of the street now, shotgun thumping heavily on his back and a hand on the gun in his belt loop. This was his first time in the open, _free. _Someone must have cleared out Katons and their spare parts.

Sasuke loosened his grip on his handgun. If he let go, he would take longer to reach it should he run into a scout or robot. If he let go and ran into one, reaching for it might be the fraction of the second it would take for him to die. The raven swallowed heavily and let his grip on the cold metal spasm. Then, he unclenched his fingers so that they weren't clutching the gun. Sasuke's hand hovered over the gun now, and he clenched his fist once again and lifted it to move his bangs out of his face. _Free_.

Itachi wasn't around to hover over him anymore, and Kakashi wasn't here to fill in the spaces of time that Itachi left for a while.

Sasuke sprinted through the streets now, his right arm swinging in a fist by his side. The pavement here was clean, no longer stained sanguine, and the gravel under his boots didn't fly away to reveal remnants of bones. The wind burned his face but the library was right in front of him now, getting closer and closer to those stairs that looked over one hundred.

He slowed to a jog when he reached the first step, breathing heavily but not panting. Sasuke turned and slowly studied his surroundings. There still weren't any Katons or scouts, and the sky was cleared of Katons' drone partners. Before Sasuke could dwell on it any further, he traveled up the first step, then the next ten, then the next twenty. They really were pure marble, he thought, still polished-looking but undeniably worn and burned in some places. His feet rapidly danced over steps, sometimes taking two at a time due to his anticipation of the smell of stale pages.

Sasuke glanced up at the fifty or so steps left, now taking them all two at a time. His shoulder stung when it shifted every few moments, but he didn't pay much mind to the pain. There was a short walkway near the top of the stairs, about five feet long. He skidded over it and rushed up the steps again, grand glass doors surrounded by columns much more visible now. There were a few photos of past historical figures on either side of the doors.

Sasuke reached the top of the stairs and panted, glaring at the foggy glass doors in front of him. He pulled the pistol out of his belt loop now, cautiously inching towards the doors and knocking on them. Their glass was thick, soundproof. Typical for a library. Sasuke eased the gun between his thumb and forefinger and set his hand on the handle of the door, wincing when it loudly creaked as he pulled it open. He jammed his boot through, pressed his back against the opposite door, and waited for the soft hums and mechanical whirs.

There were none.

Sasuke awkwardly shifted his feet so that his right shoulder would be entering the library first. He poked his head through the small space he opened, met with a very dim lighting. Sasuke pushed the door open the rest of the way to let some light in and nearly gasped at the rows upon _rows_ of books, spiraling and leading to a second, third and fourth floor. Inside was one hundred percent silent. It was clear. He let the door shut to a small crack and kicked the stopper so that he had enough light to find the power source. Luckily, a candelabra meant for décor rested overturned to his right. Sasuke picked it up by its golden handle and glanced around the area that was visible for matches. He sighed when he realized that there probably weren't any and hung his arm, letting the candelabra slide down his palm.

Sasuke rummaged through the box under a table by the door, random pages with underlined sentences and dog ears filling most of it. Knick knacks and souvenirs were in it also, but no matches. He kicked the box to the side and opened the box next to it, finding hope when there were things like batteries and flare guns in it. Sasuke scrunched his nose and threw a cigarette butt to the side. He snorted when he hound a lighter with barely enough juice to flick on two or three times.

He set the candelabra on the golden table, fumbling with the lighter until he managed to open it. The raven held it steadily above a black wick, flicking it ablaze and snorting when the wick caught fire and burned boldly. He gingerly removed the single candle from its holder and lit its neighbor candles, brightly illuminating his surroundings.

Sasuke observed the grand circular room before him, marble floors and bookshelves, murals on the monstrous ceiling with an intricate golden chandelier swinging unlatched on its side. Diamonds lay spread out on the chipped floors from where they had fallen from the appendage. A long row of desks and computers lined the entrance wall, where books were checked out and in. A design too large to identify was carved into the ivory floor and slightly crumbled as Sasuke strolled across it.

He swallowed heavily. Would the books he was looking for be in reference? Sasuke had yet to come across a genre guide where they would usually be posted on the length of shelves. His heart rate picked up as he got deeper into the library, clutching the gold in his hand a bit tighter with each step that echoed throughout the building. Why was he even bothering coming here? It would have been safer to stay at-

No. He couldn't be chickening out now. Sasuke had come this far, and wouldn't face himself if he turned back. To be strong is to admit weaknesses, he thought, something Itachi had always said growing up. It was okay to ask for help, when he needed it. He glanced to the opposing side of shelves, sighing in frustration when there were no guides posted on them, either. No guide was an excuse to turn back. He couldn't stay here for hours looking for a genre just because he couldn't fucking—

A long white canvas lay upside down under his foot, skidded a few inches from where he had stepped on it. Sasuke bent over to pick it up, turning it around so that it faced him.

_History & Geography….K180_

He sighed and skid his eyes down the list, thinking about what it would go under.

_Philosophy & Psychology…..K351_

Sasuke guessed what he was looking for would be under this genre. He eyed the letters and numbers atop the shelves, turning on his heels to walk back where he had started. Sasuke entered a wide row and held up his light to scan the titles of books and author names. He squinted at books about self-image and books titled things like _Getting to_ _Know Yourself: The Do's and Don'ts_ and _Girls and How to Handle Them. _

Sasuke walked a few more paces until he came to the shelf he was looking for. Without realizing, he glanced around himself even though he knew that there was no one to witness. He pulled out a few books in general and dropped them to the floor. He ran a hand through his hair and sat down with one leg out and the other by his chest. The raven picked up a novel and swallowed loudly when he ran a finger over its index.

He would try his best to turn pages with one hand for the next few hours.

* * *

Naruto sat alone in front of the bonfire, hands clenched between his knees and lips straight. The small amount of sunlight that the thick clouds had allowed was setting, turning his surroundings pink.

Maybe it had been a mistake. An ember strayed from its coals and landed on his boot. He didn't bat it away.

A few hours ago, he had been casually chatting with Sakura in the spot where he was currently sitting. She had asked him a question that he hadn't been able to answer.

"What was it like, having Jiraiya train you? We never saw you, but you always ate most of our food and slept until midday."

Then he had paused, his mouth slightly open. He shut his mouth and stared at the pink-haired girl, who had covered her mouth with her hand.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, it s-"

"Will you tell me?" Naruto whispered. "About my past? You know it, don't you?"

Sakura sighed and rested her head in her hands, clenching her fingers in her hair. She rubbed her face with one hand and stared at the ground. "Naruto, I'm not sure that you want to know. You're so happy like this-"

"I'll ask Tsunade, then," the blond snapped and rose from the log. Sakura grabbed his wrist and tugged him back down with another heavy sigh, patting the back of his hand.

"Don't start a bunch of drama," she said weakly. "Settle down. I'll tell you what I think you should know."

Naruto blanched. "What _you _think _I _should know? Sakura, this is _my _past. I deserve to know everything that's about myself."

Ah, something he had picked up from Itachi, Sakura thought. Naruto would have never said a thing like that to anyone, but he had always had the fire inside him to. She guessed the time at Kakashi's camp had ignited it.

"Alright. Are you sure? One hundred percent, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded and stared at the dirt under his boots. It was about time he knew. He needed to know about his friends, past, and most importantly, himself. It was ridiculous not knowing trivial things about himself, like his shoe size or his eye color, and it was embarrassing when someone asked him something that he should've known. He was ready.

Sakura sighed, chuckled, and shook her head. "You've always been this persistent."

* * *

Naruto was born under the parents of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.

Minato had been the only five-star general of the Konoha military, the right hand man to Danzo Shimura. His wife of five years stayed at home. Kushina had been a lawyer for only a few months before she retired to devote her time to her husband.

Naruto had been born healthy, kicking, and screaming, puffy-faced and red-skinned. He had been born in Konoha's military hospital, delivered by Tsunade Senju and Orochimaru Sannin, who had been in the sector as a guest for communications.

He vividly remembered being cocooned in his mother's scarlet hair, from birth to age four. She had been the sweetest woman he'd ever known. Minato didn't return home until the latest hours of the night, so Kushina made sure that Naruto's hyperactive mind was busy. The mother and son had been remarkably close. She had fed him until his cheeks and fingers were chubby and spoiled him rotten.

When Minato would come home near midnight, Naruto would get so riled up that his father had to take him for a run to get the boy to sleep again. Even though Minato couldn't be around his son that often, he made sure that when he was there, it counted and it was as memorable as moments could be.

They lived a short life together. By the time it had come to reap he Sectors of their overpopulation, Danzo decided to appoint himself with an unbiased military.

Danzo disguised his thoughts with a regular chair meeting, wives invited.

That night, Minato and Kushina left Naruto with a younger Jiraiya who read a porn magazine all night. They kissed him on his small forehead and waved when he pouted and smashed his face against their large windows. His parents promised the blond that they would be back within a few hours, and promised to let him stay up so he could play with them. Naruto watched them climb in their blue car and back out of their driveway, turning the street with their headlights diminishing. The sound of crunching gravel and the hum of the car's motor still echoed in his head.

They never returned.

Naruto sat, cold and curled up by the door in his froggy pajamas, waiting until it was well past midnight. Jiraiya had tried to convince him to go to bed, but the four year old didn't have any of it. Naruto had dragged his fox blanket to the front door and bundled in it until Jiraiya had picked him up and thrown Naruto into his bed. The little boy didn't pay much attention to this, cuddling with his blankets and falling asleep for an hour or so.

Naruto now remembered that he had dreamed of a demon towering over Konoha's sector, picking citizens out with its claws and throwing them behind itself to be smashed with its nine tails. Naruto screamed when he saw its deformed claws pierce his mother and father, squeezing them in his palm. When the demon opened its paw, all that was left was a shower of blood coming down from it, and strands of long red hair. He had woken up crying and stuffed himself into the corner his bed was pressed against, curling into the tightest ball he could muster and shivering. Jiraiya heard him sobbing a few minutes later, struggling to unlock the door from the outside.

"Naruto? Are you okay?"

The four year old ignored him in favor of wiping his snot on his pajama sleeve and choking on some of his tears. "A-aya!"

"Naruto, open this door right-" Jiraiya yelped and a heavy thud was heard from the outside, as well as a sliding against the wall. Multiple pairs of footsteps were muffled through his bedroom door. There was more sliding, as well as a few slurs and murmurs. Naruto had stopped crying to listen in, the tears slowing down and replaced with silent hiccups. Everything had gone silent in the house.

The front door's lock jiggled violently enough for Naruto to sit up straight. The door thumped. Its lock jiggled more loudly now, audibly crumbling and cracking under somebody's pressure. The door thumped loudly again, the small white blinds on it cracking against their window and shuddering. Something hit the door hard enough for the window to shatter, and this time a metal clang was heard. The doorknob had been kicked out and what Naruto had heard was it rolling to the side. The front door was kicked down and a multitude of booted steps showered in his house, spreading through the rooms like ants to leftovers. Their wooden doors were kicked open and their kitchen drawers yanked out of their sockets and rummaged through, their TV and appliances ripped from the walls in electrical baths of sparks. They were thrown to various parts of the house and kicked around. Naruto hid under his blankets again, quivering wide-eyed and panting under his covers. What should he do?

What _could_ he do?

The nausea grew in Naruto's stomach each time a door was kicked down, one by one, closer to his room. There were no voices that yelled out to each other. There were just heavy, angry footsteps and grunts.

Naruto's blood turned cold when the door of his parent's room, next to his, was kicked down. He could hear the intruders rummaging around in there and a few strange ripping noises. The intruders stayed in there for longer than any of the other rooms, quiet enough for Naruto to think that they had left. He sat up and shakily removed the blanket off his head, setting his toes on the cold wooden floor and shuffling to the middle of his room. Naruto glanced out his window to see hundreds of black figures darting in and out of the neighbors' home. Was this happening to his dad's friends too? It was a neighborhood exclusively for high military officials.

He froze when a single pair of footsteps transcended directly outside of his door. Naruto's eyes widened as much as they possibly could when he saw two shadows, shoes, and parallel to each other under the crack of his door. Every single thought he had was telling his small body to move, _leave, _and he would be safe.

But there was nowhere to run.

This was Naruto's own home.

Who runs away from home?

Naruto's bowels clenched when the doorknob turned slowly in the moonlight his windows allowed. He clutched the blue blanket around his shoulders in his stubby fingers, clamping his lips together and panting through his nose. His heart hurt and his whole body felt hot and cold at the same time and his head was spinning and-

Naruto shrieked when the door slammed open so hard that it recoiled against the wall. So many bodies he didn't know the numbers for poured in through the door and overturned his furniture, ripping it apart and flinging his toys and blankets all over the place. A larger body, face masked in a smooth black material that didn't allow a glimpse inside snatched his wrist and attempted to shove him to the door. Naruto yelled – unheard through the destruction in his room - and tried to yank his wrist back, dropping his blanket and beating the figure's stomach with his other hand. The attacker grabbed his other hand and twisted it painfully, only strengthening its grip when Naruto screamed.

"Stop it!" Naruto fell to his side and hit his head against the attacker's metal shoe, smacking its ankle with his palm stinging from the force. "Stop it! S-"

Another body joined its companion and grabbed the one slapping hand, Naruto's right. The figure stopped twisting his arm and they both yanked him up between them, letting his pajama-clad legs dangle from between them. The intruders marched him out into the hallway, stuffing a cloth over his nose when he screamed and thrashed in their grips. The last thing he heard was the sound of something pouring on the wooden floors.

When Naruto woke up, it was from being throttled around and to the loud noise of a motor. He recognized the sound as one of the military's rescue vans.

Naruto's eyes felt like they weighed a hundred pounds. He moaned when he managed to get them open, burning along with his nose and throat. Red spots danced in front of Naruto's eyes and his mouth felt like it was filled with cotton balls. He could tell that he was packed tight with many other bodies, presumably his age, judging by the small shoulder poking into his own. A few sobs filled the carrier, a few bangs from where small fists were demanding to see their mothers and fathers. Naruto knew some of those voices. His friends and acquaintances, children of his dad's friends. Sakura was audibly sobbing into her knees, and he recognized the gruff voice of the fat boy and the dominating one of Neji Hyuuga. Neji was the one banging on the carrier's doors, Naruto thought, the boy cursing and threatening to use his father's teachings on the driver if he wasn't sent home soon. Their bodies jumped as the van hit another bump in the road, jolting them to different corners of the van and smacking each other with their small palms.

The van suddenly swerved and squeaked to a violent stop, throwing Naruto's back into the two opening doors of the carrier. He grunted and took Neji down with him, the boy's pale eyes looking livid in the sliver of light the carrier doors allowed. Naruto grunted, apologizing and leaning on the carrier doors. He stumbled when they suddenly gave way, replaced with the blinding light of the summer sun and hands grabbing at him by his armpits. Naruto burned his throat with the surprised yell he let out, jerking his shoulders in a weak attempt to get their gloved hands off of him. Each one of the kids in the carrier was hoisted out by their arms, a smooth white wire being connected around their wrists.

When Naruto tried to tug at the wire when he was being escorted into a place he didn't recognize, it sent bright blue shocks through his bones sharp enough to make him whimper. The man shoving him through gray doors jostled him roughly. Naruto and the other kids were being led to a large room in a single file line, most of them still in their PJs. Some of the girls he knew, who were usually boldly yelling at him for scraping his knees and having dirt under his nails, were sobbing so hard that their shoulders shook with their delicate faces scrunched up and red. They weren't very pretty criers.

He noticed that some of the escorts in front of them had stopped, facing to the front of the metal room where a large stage was bared. A man with bandages on his face and strange warps and lumps under his clothing was standing on a Katon, the friendly bots that kept their village safe and clean.

The man he knew was his father's boss was looking down his nose at all of them, jaw tensed and nose scrunched. He whispered something to a pale man with long hair standing next to him.

Naruto's escort came to a stop. He was one of the last ones, only about ten more kids left to line up. The man set a clear sticker on his cheek, flashing blue for a moment before gently clearing his throat into it, his voice magnified and clear.

"Children of the next generation of military officers," the man announced, holding his hands behind his back. "You will be assigned in platoons and ranks which you will work _diligently_," he paused, waiting for the children to interpret the meaning of the word. "For the rest of your life."

A confused hum of high voices rose after the man finished his speech. They hadn't understood half of what he said.

"Where are our parents!" Neji's even, bold voice spread through the room and he glared at the man. Naruto knew that Neji's father was in the same ranks as his father, but Neji was two years older than all of them and was placed in military education already.

"They will no longer be with you," the man's lips curled and he tilted his head at the boy. "Do you have any other questions?"

This time, Lee, also two years older than all of them, spoke out. "If you don't mind, Commander Danzo, where are our moms and dads ex..actly?"

"They won't _be with you,_ children," Danzo spat and clenched his fists by his sides, draped in an oversized military uniform. "Do you unders-"

"Where are mamas!" Naruto yelled and stamped his foot. "Where are _dadas!" _His screaming was followed up by a few agreeing ones, some high-pitched cursing and a few grunts from the girls. There had to be at least two hundred children from the ages of four to eight in this room, all trying to outtalk each other and demand the locations of their parents.

Danzo clenched his jaw when the man beside him smirked and crossed his arms. Danzo tried to quiet their voices down unsuccessfully, holding his arms out and pushing them down. Their noise only grew louder when kids tried to move and yelped when they received a shock from their handcuffs.

"Shut _up, _you stupid fucking children!" the man bellowed and seethed when shocked gasps arose at his profanity. "They're _dead! _All of your parents are dead! Now listen to me."

"Shino Aburame, Platoon six, Rank B. Chouji Akimichi, Platoon four, rank C, special training. Banhe Ame, Platoon one, Rank A…"

Naruto barely knew what dead meant, but he had a pretty good idea of what it did. He didn't hear his platoon or rank get called out. He only heard his blood humming in his ears and the sniffles of the other children.

The only thing Naruto could remember right now was gagging when Minato and Kushina kissed in front of him. His mother making him terrible pancakes in the morning, but never telling her anything because he loved being spoiled. His mother holding his hand when they crossed streets and went through crowds, Naruto complaining about being a big man but not letting go when they reached the end of the crows and got to the other side of the street. Minato hefting him up and setting Naruto on his shoulders, tickling his stomach until he was dangerously close to peeing himself and bright red. Minato teaching him exercises that he wouldn't remember to burn off his excess energy.

Before Naruto knew it, he was being shoved towards a door to the opposite side of the stage. He was given a heavy dog tag and filed under the Sector ID program.

Apparently, the blond was in Platoon two, Rank A. For the next two years he would train over his body's limits with the kids he was placed with, but didn't know. That was where he had met Kiba and Gaara. Gaara was the smallest of their group, an inch or two shorter than Naruto's puny size at that age. But he had worked well with him. Naruto and Gaara slowly inched up the military's ranking, into the highest barracks and slowly earning respect. They were combat specialists at six and a half, trusted enough to be sent on important missions and small enough to sneak around for confidential ones.

That was where Naruto's short memory of Kiba had been. They had been running through an illegal laboratory, Kiba's personalized shotgun bouncing against his thigh and yelling at Gaara to hurry up.

Platoon 2A had consisted of nine kids and adolescents. Naruto, Kiba, Gaara, Yagura, Yukito, Utakata, Tall Han, Roshi, and Fu had worked very well together.

Meanwhile, outside military walls, not a single being was informed of the war the Sectors were in. Not a single one of them knew about the heartless manslaughter, leaving men and their families stranded in undiscovered parts of the world. Their once lovely, family-friendly Katons became a death sign to those not a citizen. Katons were just meant to pick up litter and incinerate them in the small flamethrowers they had installed inside of their body. But after Naruto's fifth birthday, which had gone by unnoticed, their software had been updated so that if they came across an eliminated person, their new weapons would unfurl and terminate that being.

Naruto, Gaara, and Tsunade's camp had grown up playing with the things inside the isolated walls of the military. They could create spheres of burnt trash so the best friends could pretend they were normal and play catch. Sometimes, the Katons would play fetch with them. They each had their own intelligent software, and it depended whether it would take a pat on the metal back or an inappropriate action to catch the robots' attention.

Outside those walls, things had gone downhill in Konoha. What was meant to be a purging of unneeded citizens led the citizens allowed to stay feel like they had to reproduce at least two children. Lands were running out, Sectors were getting rowdier and rowdier, bandits were getting bolder, and days were getting harder.

It led to the day where Naruto and his friends were excused under the raised hand of Danzo. At seven and eight years old, they were relieved of their statuses and quietly filed into a government drone. Danzo had seen them off, disappointed with the decision he had had to make. He hoped they would use their military knowledge to survive until a brighter sun would shine.

The flight took hours. How many, Naruto couldn't tell, but they were hostilely thrown fifteen feet from the ground with a few Katons landing on top of them. They were stripped of their citizen status and filed under the eliminated persons list. The Katons, once their friends, had latched back onto the drone and flew away to shelter.

They had originally started off as one large group. All of them were selfish at seven years old. They didn't work well together at all.

Neji's materialism was what had split them back then. Naruto had decided to leave their sad excuse of a camp with his old platoon, seven other boys and girls that later named themselves the Jinchuriiki. Naruto promised that he would be back every few months or so to visit his other friends, cycling between them.

That was how it had been, for nine years. Over the lands of unknown territory and ruins of Sectors destroyed by others. Running into bandits and scouts and Katons on his way to every other group, alone and sometimes thinking that it would be the last few minutes of his life. He would use what Earth had to offer to defend himself; branches, rocks. Sakura would patch those cuts up when he got back. Chouji would make a nice meal to celebrate his successful travelling. Shikamaru would wake up from his naps to greet and bid him adieu. Tenten would have a few new knives to teach him about, and Sai would tell him what the names of colors were and illustrate forbidden objects and locations.

When he went back to the Jinchuriiki, Gaara would nod his approval to making it back safely and they would hunt. The other members of the group would carry on, leaning against their alleys that they called camp. They'd run when Katons rolled by or if a single footstep other than one within their group was heard.

He had spent the majority of his life running back and forth between two different worlds.

* * *

Naruto now remembered the severe anger issues that Gaara used to have. Gaara would have frequent rage attacks at small things, but those things were never Naruto. He remembered that Gaara was always calm around him, memories pushing themselves into his mind and making his head hurt. They came to him very slowly, dimly, but uncovering more and more with time. Naruto had grown up on the tip of his toes, and now he was finally beginning to set his whole foot on the ground. Frankly, Naruto didn't want to remember anymore. He had been fine, sitting next to Sasuke under the stars and listening to the raven explain how they were created. Naruto had finally settled down for once, felt calm for once.

It was his fault that he had asked Sakura to tell him. Maybe he should have fucking listened like he listened to Sasuke when his group told Naruto he didn't want to remember.

_Always so persistent_, Sakura had said.

She was right.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for how crappily this is written, guys. I know it's late but I obviously tried to rush it. It's been busy. I hope you like this really shitty chapter that will be edited for detail later. Don't forget to watch for updates and drabbles about S5 on my tumblr (maybe). See ya!


	13. Bones Exposed

Chapter 12: Bones Exposed

* * *

Naruto sat there on the log with his boots dug two inches into the ground. Lee had long since stamped out the fire, giving a solemn nod and salute to the blond and patting him on the shoulder. Naruto numbly stared at the still glowing coals of the fire.

The only thing that had impacted him so far was the abrupt loss of his parents. Naruto remembered that night in perfect clarity, could recall the long red hair stuck under the dining room chair's leg. He especially remembered how _cold _it had been. Though these days, it seemed to be colder.

Naruto could only remember the snippets of what Sakura was able to tell him; nothing outside of them. Naruto couldn't remember any details of his friends other than Gaara's mental issues and the cause of Hinata's stutter.

He sighed heavily and slunk down to the ground, letting his boots create a path of mud as he stretched his legs out and lay his head on the dead log. The stars were out. Naruto wished some of them would stop twinkling so brightly and shift to a different hemisphere.

Sasuke. He hadn't seen the boy all day, aside from breakfast. Sasuke should have made an appearance for lunch and dinner. Naruto should have at least heard Sasuke and Itachi arguing somewhere in the background. All he heard today was Suigetsu's airy whistling and the occasional grunt from Juugo. The girls had certainly asked Naruto where Sasuke was, but he hadn't seen Sasuke in over twelve hours.

Naruto stood and rubbed the back of his aching head. Maybe Sasuke had overslept? Naruto had watched him get those thick stitches out this morning.

Naruto put his hands in his pockets and trudged over pieces of ice to their tent. He kicked the flap open, peeking inside but not spotting a lump of blankets and black spikes of hair. Naruto turned and glanced around, the neighboring tents gray in the moonlight and shivering with a cold gust of wind that traveled by.

He quietly walked through the small path in the forest that led to their car circle. No Sasuke. Naruto approached their SUV and typed in the unlock code on its side. The inside of the car lit up in bright blue, but still no signs of Sasuke. He sighed and locked the SUV.

The walk back, he glanced at the little amount of pavement the trees allowed a view of. Was Sasuke with Itachi in his tent? Naruto furrowed his brows and checked their tent again. Nothing. The boy wasn't in the top three areas he would be.

Metal glinted in the moonlight and Naruto's eyes widened. The gun barrel. Had Sasuke-?

Naruto bound to the barrel and glanced at it, a few mental numbers flying by in his mind as he recounted the guns he had observed. Ten of eleven handguns, although one missing was a given. Five of five rifles, three of three machine guns, two of three pump shotguns and four of four automatic shotguns.

_Sasuke snorted and nodded towards his left arm, just a lump under his thick sweater. "I don't need two arms to shoot a pump," the boy gloated. "I can use momentum with one."_

A handgun and a shotgun. Where was Sasuke? Fuck. Itachi had told him to keep an eye on his brother. Shit. Did Sasuke go hunting alone? What if he got attacked by an animal? What would happen if Itachi-

Naruto cringed and jogged into the thin beginning of the woods, met with an inkling of thick roots and pitch black. "Sasuke," he whispered loudly, then glanced back to Itachi's tent, which had the outline of the man's body shown by his lantern.

"Sasuke, are you in there?" Naruto leaned into the woods and blinked when he thought he closed his eyes. It was darker than usual tonight. "Sasuke, please come back."

Silence. An animal made a weird noise somewhere behind the trees, its small footsteps pattering away from Naruto and deeper into the woods. Naruto winced and leaned further into the woods.

"Sas', come on. Itachi's going to kill me if I don't find you," he called out to the trees. "Damn it."

Naruto turned and jogged to the artillery barrel, rummaging through the butts of the guns and cringing when they locked and clanged together. He fished out a fluorescent yellow flashlight and clicked it on, punching it a few times when it flickered and finally shone brightly.

"Shit," Naruto grumbled and stuffed the flashlight into his stomach, still glowing around the edges. He inched into the woods, stumbling a few times when his feet caught in wild roots. When Naruto was deep enough into the woods for his flashlight to be unseen, he pointed it at a tree in front of him and sighed. Damn. Where the hell could Sasuke be? Best case scenario, the boy had fallen asleep in the branches of a tree… or something like that. Naruto waved the flashlight above him, seeing a few scuffs where they had climbed this exact tree and Naruto may or may not have fallen out of more than a few times. Worst case scenario, Sasuke tried to run away. But he didn't have a reason to, did he?

"S'keeee," he called out, slowly moving the flashlight around himself and walking around. This was the worst time to get lost. How would Naruto look for Sasuke with just a flashlight?

But Naruto would find Sasuke.

Naruto waved the flashlight around and only moved a total of about three feet within the next fifteen minutes. He slumped his shoulders when he realized that straying from the camp was most definitely not a good idea at this hour. Katons and scouts-

Sticks crunched to his right and Naruto tensed. Shit. He had attracted a bunch of fucking Katons, hadn't he? Oh, man. Neji and Tenten were on guard at this hour, but never this area since it was so commonly used. Naruto groaned and sprinted back into the tent area, shutting the flashlight off and diving to the ground. Steady rustles of leaves could now be heard, heading in a beeline towards their camp and becoming louder.

Should Naruto shoot it? That would make a bigger deal out of the situation than it actually was. Then questions would arise of Sasuke's whereabouts, and then he was screwed. He saw Itachi's silhouette shift in his tent. What would the man do if he didn't find Sasuke? Naruto was sure as hell that he'd be matching with those slabs of meat Kabuto had left by the fire.

Kami, he should be taking this more seriously. Sasuke had left, injured, with a major limb in a sling and two guns. The guy could have at least taken Kusanagi. What if… Sasuke was _dead? _No, Naruto shouldn't assume the absolute worse. He shook his head from its side position on its ground and sighed as Itachi shut off his lantern and hit the hay. Sasuke's not dead, he told himself. Sasuke's perfectly capable of handling himself, even though he only had one to use, and was two times smaller than the average buck. He was fine, right?

Naruto winced when the rolling sound hit the grass of their tent circle, steady and smooth. He shifted his head into his arms slowly, knowing that Katons would ID his face and ignore his body to assume it was a dead one. Oh shit, it was just a few feet in front of him, and now right in front of the crown of his head-

Two feet planted themselves on Naruto's back and the gun barrel rummaged quietly. His back cracked loudly under the weight of them and he moaned in pain. "Chouji, you're stepping on me!" He choked.

"_Chouji?"_ A deeper voice demanded, the feet quickly removing themselves.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called and reached out for the boy's leg. He wheezed and batted at the limb, grabbing the back of Sasuke's knee and trying to trip him.

"Naruto, what the hell are you going on the ground? Let go of my leg," Sasuke mumbled back and kicked his calve free from Naruto's grip. "Stop exaggerating about my weight."

"I was looking for you since you've been gone all day. When you came in through the woods, I thought you were a scout or something," Naruto said, rubbing his aching back and stumbling to his feet. "And I'm not," he added.

"You probably weigh more than I do, idiot," Sasuke said and yanked Naruto to his feet.

Naruto shrugged and only hoped that Sasuke could see the shift of his shoulders. The raven ignored him and turned to slug a gun in the metal barrel, producing a handgun from his waist and dropping it in as well.

"How many shots did you use?" Naruto mumbled, eyeing his friend's tired face.

"Zero."

"Where did you go?"

"Out," Sasuke deadpanned and stalked towards their tent, toed his boots off and opened the flap.

"Out where?" Naruto followed the raven into their tent, stiffly lowering himself on top of his blankets and turning to Sasuke.

Sasuke shrugged with one shoulder and threw his jacket to the other side of the tent, making its plastic indent and produce a_ woosh_ when the material slid against each other. "City."

"City?" Naruto repeated and raised his eyebrows. "Like, miles away city? With scouts and Katons and-"

"I'd say it's about six miles away from here," Sasuke interrupted and kneeled on his blankets.

The blond pulled back his own sheets as well. "What were you doing in the city?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?"

"Just curious…" Naruto pursed his lips and scratched his hand. At least Sasuke had made it back safely.

Sasuke apparently took pity on Naruto, turned to him, and said, "I read."

Naruto was caught off guard for a few moments. Sasuke had traveled into town - alone -to read? "Wow. Must have been important, 'Sas. What did you read about?" The blond bundled himself into his blankets and turned to the figure of Sasuke.

Sasuke snorted and turned away from Naruto. "I'm not telling you any fucking bedtime stories."

Naruto sniffed. He guessed Sasuke didn't want to talk his damn head off for once. Naruto opened his mouth to blurt what Sakura had told him earlier, but snapped it shut. He didn't know if he was ready to tell the raven; after all, he had just discovered mere hours ago. The burns of the loss of his parents were newly fresh, and Naruto wasn't sure about the terms he, Gaara and Sai laid on now. It was all too confusing to take in at once.

So they lay in silence for some long moments. Naruto's head hadn't stopped hurting since Sakura's speech. No new memories were resurfacing, just a throb every few moments and images of what Sakura had told him. The images were blurry, though, and if they were material, then they would be flimsy. It was weird, though; Naruto was sure that by now, he'd have recovered the holes Sakura didn't fill in, but nothing came up save for a few images of Gaara.

Sasuke sighed. "Of course you have something to say," he whispered. "Don't we talk enough?"

"Not really," the blond replied and played with a few loose threads on one of his blankets. "It's just that you're speaking more words in a day than you have in your life."

"Be quiet."

Naruto did stay quiet for a long while. Their whole camp had gone down a few hours ago. They let the gentle rustle of the wind moving through the woods and owl callings fill in their silence, accompanied by their calm breathing and occasional shifts.

Everything was moving too fast for Naruto. He had so longingly mourned for the whole day. Sleeping now would be like blinking, and moving onto another day that felt like a whole blur. The only thing that hadn't gone a hundred miles per hour over his head was Sasuke's words, wise and nobly pronounced. How leisurely the raven walked out of his tent, into the woods, towards his brother. Sasuke took his time waking up, but when the time came, he could match a deer in speed. Sasuke was patient most of the time, with him but not with others. Maybe Sasuke didn't notice that he talked so much; that he absentmindedly blurted his thoughts as soon as they came sometimes and didn't reprimand himself for his judgmental opinions. Maybe Sasuke was the only person Naruto caught up with at all.

"What is it?" Sasuke murmured, barely audible but just enough so for the blond to hear.

Naruto sighed. He guessed it would all come out here; in this tent, on the land they had been abandoned on. Inside an excuse for a camp on terrain patrolled by robots whose job was to kill them. Out here, it was every man for himself and every morsel of food for your own stomach. You couldn't trust anybody in this world.

But Naruto chose to trust Sasuke at this moment, and unknowingly even before it. He turned his back to Sasuke and took a few deep breaths.

They ended up facing each other, anyway. Sasuke had kept the visible part of his face neutral through Naruto's retelling.

"Something's not right there," Sasuke said and shifted his legs. "It was too abrupt."

Naruto nodded. He didn't have any words; right now, Naruto felt like he had just unwrapped and laid out his insides for Sasuke to inspect. He didn't regret telling the raven, but the unease in his stomach was the inevitable grief that came along with it.

"Why didn't you ask me-"

"Why do I always have to ask for _permission _around here?" Naruto tensed and interrupted. "I lost my memory, not my dignity. Stop leading me around when I know how to walk!"

Oh, no. He hadn't meant to blow up like that. It was like his mouth had run on autopilot.

"We're not 'leading you around'," Sasuke mocked. "If you want advice, then you ask for it. If you want to be treated your age, then _act _like it-"

"Shut up!" Naruto sat up and threw his blankets aside. "I can remember the shit I learned in military school, Sasuke. Time! I need time! You don't understand-"

"_I _don't understand?" Sasuke raised his voice and sat on his legs to match Naruto. "I'm the one with a single fucking clue about how things around here work. You're not careful enough-"

"I'm careful enough for myself and you! You're the one that went to the city alone, Sasuke, not me! You don't know what it's like-"

"Stop fucking victimizing yourself," Sasuke hissed and squared his shoulders. "I lost my parents, too, damn it!"

Naruto froze in his movements to get up. "You did?"

"_Suck it up, _Naruto," the raven sneered at him.

Naruto lowered himself back onto his blankets and crossed his legs. They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments, reveling over the things they – Sasuke – had blurted. The blond immediately felt guilty for the things he had said, about Sasuke not understanding the loss of parents when the raven had, also. And, like Sasuke had said, Naruto was _victimizing _himself. How could he be so selfish?

"I'm sorry."

"Go have a pity party somewhere else," Sasuke grumbled and settled on his back, throwing his blankets on top of himself again.

"I mean it, Sasuke. I'm sorry. It was just too soon-"

"If you don't shut up, I'm going to snap your neck."

"Say you forgive me."

"Naruto, just _shut up. _You're like a little kid."

"But I'm really sorry," Naruto bit out and shuffled closer to Sasuke. "Please, will you forgive me? I didn't know-"

"If I say yes, will you let me sleep?"

"You have to mean it. Please?"

Sasuke paused and sighed explosively, turning as far away from Naruto as possible. "I know you didn't mean it. You're just confused, aren't you?" he deadpanned.

"Yes," Naruto said. "Forgive me?"

"Fine," Sasuke replied, visibly loosening his tensed shoulders and glancing at the blond. "It's not even that big of a deal."

"Really?" The blond asked and hung his face over Sasuke's.

"Yes, really."

Naruto set his lips in a line and shuffled back over to his sleeping bag, gathering his scattered blankets and bundling with them. He guessed that was as close as he would get. "G'night?"

"Hn," the raven breathed back.

* * *

Itachi leaned away from the tent and tucked a piece of his hair behind his ear, silently moving over new snow and into the woods.

So Sasuke had gone to the city alone? His little brother would certainly get reprimanded for that in the future; Itachi couldn't reveal that he had listened in. It was frankly hypocritical that Sasuke would accuse Naruto of not being careful enough.

"…said that he has plenty of men."

Itachi tensed his lips and focused on the barely visible fire through the veil of trees. Kabuto had apparently begun roasting his meets; the smell was prominent from even over ten feet away. The man was sitting on the ground to the west, parallel to Neji and the mentally ill boy. Gaara was seated to the left of Kabuto, gazing just a few inches off Itachi's shoulder and flicking his pointer nail against his thumb. Kabuto's voice could roughly be heard, carried by the wind. Itachi leaned against a thick tree and crossed his arms.

"It's west from here, on the outskirts of two. I'd say it's a week drive and two months by foot, if we're diligent."

"What if they look for us?" Neji more demanded than questioned. "What if we get caught?"

Itachi's brow furrowed, crouching and shuffling a bit closer so that his back was pressed against a strange bush. Was he hearing something he wasn't supposed to?

"They're _coming_ with us," Kabuto snapped and the fire loudly swayed. "Just for a bit."

"Why in the hell," Neji hissed, "should they come with us? _We're _the ones that deserve shelter."

_I'm the only one. _

"We'll break it to them in a few days," Kabuto overrode and leant back on his hands. "Itachi will help us. Won't you, Uchiha?"

So soon, Itachi thought. There was no point in hiding any longer; should he stay hidden, then he would be considered a coward. Itachi rose to his full height and stared at the four occupants of a pact and waited.

Gaara stared at Itachi as if he were a slab of the meat a few feet away from him. The man slowly walked towards the group, making confident eye contact with Neji and Sai. He lowered himself next to Kabuto, who smirked and spat to the side.

"Trying to be slick?" Kabuto sneered and tore a piece of rib from its carcass, then tossed it onto a sizzling pan supported by a tripod over the bonfire. "You'll have to be silent now, won't you?"

Itachi said nothing in favor of staring at the oils and blood of the beef sizzling on the metal saucer. He was sure that his face was flushed from the heat of the fire. "Why?"

Neji snorted in front of him and shut his pale eyes. "Blind."

Kabuto smacked his lips and threw a clump of leftover hide to his right. "I'm sure that you understand that we are weak," he said. "_They _are weak."

Itachi's eyes glided over to Kabuto and said nothing. If this group was weak, what did that make his group alone? Scum?

"Don't faux ignorance," the silver-haired man chuckled and his glasses glinted orange. "You seem to be doing that a lot these days. But I can tell, Itachi. Don't even bother trying."

"I've… cofounded an abandoned military base with a reliable immigrant. I'm sure that you've already heard that it's near Sector Two."

Itachi tensed his jaw. Kabuto found an abandoned military base? "I don't believe you."

"Of course you don't," Kabuto replied. "That's why I kept the summary short. You'll have to see for yourself, won't you, Uchiha?"

"I don't believe you at all," Itachi barked and stood. "I-"

"You'll believe me, all right," Kabuto murmured. "You'll have to. You have that precious little brother of yours, don't you? Baby Sasuke?"

Itachi froze in his movements to stalk away. "What are you trying to get at?"

"I'm getting at," Kabuto mocked and leant forward to dump a torso of a buck on the saucer. "That if you don't help me move these people to the base, baby brother might not even have his right arm."

The brunet contemplated that in his mind. He smirked gently. "I'm sure that you're not threatening to kill my brother."

"But all I am," Kabuto breathed and rose to his feet. "Listen, Itachi. Those friends you had… oh, what are their names? Fish man and blond boy?"

For a few moments, Itachi was confused. He thought Kabuto was referring to Naruto as blond boy; Naruto had no benefit to Itachi whatsoever and he wouldn't be affected if Naruto were included in this. Now, fish man. Fish man? The only person he could think of was-

"Ah, Kisame and Deidara. Those two."

Itachi felt his face slack. Kisame and Deidara? They were dead. They hadn't returned the last time they left their small camp; Sasuke had blubbered something about them trying to kill him. Anemia wasn't uncommon, and he had dismissed Sasuke as overdramatizing his own incompetence. Sasuke had come up with very unreasonable points as his proof and had even faltered.

"They died weeks ago," Itachi deadpanned and shifted his weight. "Is there anything else you'd like to attempt to threaten me about?"

"My," Kabuto smirked. "my. Someone's left you out of the circle, haven't they? Why do you suppose that Kisame and Deidara are dead?"

"They never returned," Itachi said, "and I found traces of their blood."

"Such an intermediate guess," Kabuto scrunched his nose and shook his head. "It must be horrible to learn that the reason they never returned was because they found proper shelter at my base."

Itachi snickered, "I haven't believed a single fucking word that's come out of your mouth since you got here. Kabuto, it's in your best interest to stay away from my whole group, or there will be gruesome consequences. Let's not forget that you were below me in military school."

"So you admit it now," Kabuto rolled his eyes behind his illuminated glasses. "Stop beating around the bush, Itachi. It's in your best interest-"

Itachi spat in Kabuto's face. "_You will not tell me what to do-_"

Strong hands held his forearms tight to his lower back and yanked him away from Kabuto. Itachi distantly noted that Neji had stood up from his seat, matching himself in height and build. Capable.

"I'll repeat myself once," Kabuto barked, "and only once. It's in your best interest that you assist me in packing up this group to go to my base. If you don't, Sasuke loses his only useful limb. You'll be my lackey – my right hand man and yes boy. You will listen to what _I _say, or else Sasuke dies and I turn you in to One."

Itachi curled his lip. Everything flowing out of Kabuto's mouth was bullshit, he believed.

Kabuto rummaged around in his cargo pant pockets and produced a small bag. "If you don't think I'm capable at all," he whispered, "then how am I capable of this?"

Kabuto slowly opened the plastic bag and held a bottle up to Itachi's face. Brunet hair falling in his face barely allowed a view of the letters, but Itachi could clearly read words that he had ever so diligently memorized.

_Iron Supplements. _

"Every day you listen to me, you get one pill for the baby brother," Kabuto murmured and snapped the cap open. He overturned the bottle in his palm, letting the pills hit the plastic sides and each other. "Each day you don't, it's a week without them."

Now, the brunet's shoulders tensed. He counted twelve – their whole supply – of pill bottles. Sasuke's supplements were carefully stored in their SUV. Kabuto had to have cracked their security code within the last few hours… had he predicted this?

"So, is it yes or no?" Kabuto let three red pills slip into his palm and tossed them into the fire, clanging against the pan with burning meat on it.

Negative iron outcome, three. Sasuke had three days less of supplements. Kabuto shook his head in mock sadness.

"You're letting these go to waste?" Kabuto questioned and poured five more pills into his hand. "Don't you care about Sasuke?"

"_Don't you care about me?" _An angry, fourteen-year-old Sasuke appeared in his mind with a gaping slash in his shin deep enough to see fat, sprawled on the dirty ground. "_Are you gonna fucking leave me? You're supposed to be my brother!"_ He cried.

_You're supposed to be my brother. _

Itachi remembered strangling their father in front of his little brother. Sasuke had been petrified for weeks, months, _years. _

He didn't notice Kabuto wincing at the heightening amount of pills in his hand. They melted rusty on the pan, shining and popping.

"Don't you care about him?" Kabuto asked, nearly hesitating when he poured seven pills into his palm.

_Why didn't you ever comfort me?_

Eight.

_It's your fault that I'm the way I am! I want to be brave like Suigetsu, and big like Juugo, and smart like Karin! But I can't, because of you! You did this to me!_

A recent image of Sasuke with his arm tucked inside his tops appeared. What if there wasn't an L-shaped lump under his sweaters, and instead an infected stub on his right shoulder?

_I wish I could be normal. _

Nine.

"Stop," Itachi croaked, barely audible over the decreasing volume of pills against plastic. Kabuto mouthed numbers, counting the pile of red tablets falling into his hand and shaking his head.

"I said stop," he said, louder and more confident this time. Kabuto ran his thumb to separate four pills from five on his palm.

"Stop, I'll do it!"

Kabuto didn't look at Itachi. The orange glare of his lenses did.

"You will follow my orders?"

Itachi nodded and his eyebrow twitched.

"You will follow my orders as long as you yourself are alive?"

Itachi ground his molars against each other but nodded nonetheless.

Kabuto cupped his palm and poured the nine pills back into their bottle. "Let him go, Neji."

Said man slowly let his arms loose. Itachi squared his shoulders and stared Kabuto down.

"I won't harm Sasuke as long as you keep your promise to me," Kabuto said and took a few steps away. "At dawn, we leave to check on the base. Just you and I, Itachi. Get a few hours of sleep and tell no one, not even the souls of your dead parents."

Kabuto turned his back and nodded to Gaara and Sai, who followed him into the woods opposite the camp.

"You heard him,"Neji shoved his palms into the small of his back so that Itachi stumbled forward a few steps. Itachi shrugged his shoulders and glared at the other man, picking up the bag of supplements that Kabuto had tossed and pocketing them.

Neji sneered at him and stalked away. He was a man with delicate and feminine features, identical to his cousin. A shame Hinata had a cousin with a path like this, the brunet thought.

But then again, Itachi was on the same path, wasn't he?

* * *

A/N: Woah. What do you guys think is going on here? Can anyone identify some motifs I scatter around? They're in the hospital chap, the chapter before this, and kind of obviously in this chapter. Sorry for such a late update and a pathetically short chapter, but it needed to end here! I'll try to update earlier and with a better chapter. Don't forget to follow me on tumblr, I don't think you really have a choice. Until next chap!


	14. Standard Issue

Chapter 13: Standard Issue

* * *

The next morning, Sasuke exited his tent into a few inches of snow. He sighed and nodded to a few of the other late risers. It was unusual for him to awake this late into the day – it had to be nearly noon. But, he had been travelling all day yesterday.

The raven walked to the center of the camp, teenaged voices already echoing into the cold air accompanied by the roasting aroma of meat. Smoke from their bonfire was rising alarmingly high into the sky. Kami, they were going to attract every Katon in a five mile radius. Hadn't Itachi already told them something?

Sasuke approached the lively center of the camp and wrinkled his nose. The heady and thick smell of smoked meat nearly choked him and made his eyes water. Something was different about the smell, though. Not utterly roasted like it should have been, but with a scent of something bitter. He batted away a thick cloud of smoke to reveal Chouji poking at a sizzling piece of pork and most of the members of the camp having some sort of meat fest.

"Ey, wa' some?" Kiba asked to his side. The rugged boy held out a large chunk of disgustingly oily beef on a fork and waved it in Sasuke's face a bit. Sasuke palmed the meat away and shook his head, furrowing his eyebrows and glancing around for his brother.

If anyone could get a group of teens' attention, it was Itachi. Albeit out of the fear factor, Sasuke couldn't be taken seriously with one useful arm. The leaders of their group were nowhere to be seen. Where could Tsunade and Jiraiya possibly be?

Sasuke tucked a chunk of his bangs behind his ear and weaved through the thick smoke and crackling sounds of the fire. He almost mistook Sai for Itachi; it was when Sai tilted his head that Sasuke noticed the difference. He found Neji and Hinata, Sakura and Ino, nearly stepped on Shikamaru's slumbering face and bumped into Juugo. But Itachi was nowhere to be found.

Sasuke turned and pondered who would know the whereabouts of his brother. He'd already asked Kakashi, to which the man looked generally confused. Suigetsu had glanced around himself and shrugged.

"Last time I saw 'im," Suigetsu hacked and spit heavily unto the ground. The boy winced and chugged a bit of water before starting again, "he was fuckin' with that hunter."

"Fucking with that hunter," Sasuke deadpanned and stared straight into Suigetsu's icy eyes. "Were they fighting?"

Suigetsu shrugged and looked off into the distance, watching a few flakes of snow fall to the ground. "Maybe it was a fight w' words."

Sasuke pictured Itachi and Kabuto arguing once again in his mind. He hadn't seen Kabuto all morning, either.

Sasuke parted and glanced around for tufts of gold hair. He'd seen a glimpse of Naruto when the other boy had woken and left the tent. He walked back to the tents, kicking a few pebbles and pursing his lips when they made loud pangs against the gun barrel. Sasuke glanced inside and found it in full stock, minus the inevitable handgun or two. The girls probably had them.

"Naruto?" he called before he made the few steps to the tent. When he didn't get a response, he sighed and moved to turn back to the road.

"Wha'?" a strangled voice came from their tent. A head fell through the flaps of the tent and Naruto peeked up at Sasuke. "Morning! Have you-"

"Seen my brother?" Sasuke interrupted. They shared a look and sighed together.

"No."

Sasuke shifted his weight to one foot and crossed his arms. Well, at least he could sneak out of camp without his brother noticing. But he needed his brother to notice something right now, since Kakashi couldn't give less than a shit.

"Um," Naruto grunted and hoisted himself out of the tent, dragging Itachi's duffel bag of guns behind him. "I think he's with Kabuto."

"I thought of that," Sasuke pursed his lips. "Suigetsu mentioned that they had been fighting."

"Well," the blond ran a hand through his dirty hair and rocked on his heels. "He kinda told me to steer clear of Kabuto and a few other people."

Itachi had? Sasuke raised his brows. "Who?"

"Kabuto, of course," Naruto lugged the duffel bag in front of Itachi's tent. "Neji, Gaara, and someone else who I don't remember."

Sasuke felt his face go slack. "Naruto," he said. "There's only a bit over fifteen people in this camp."

Naruto gave him a sheepish look and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah…"

"And you can't remember a name?"

"Just give me a few minutes!" Naruto spread his arms. "Uh… Sai."

Sasuke nodded. What could Itachi be doing, if he were actually with Kabuto? Perhaps Itachi had taken off for the day to go into town or hunt by himself. The man valued his alone time.

"Have you at least seen Tsunade or Jiraiya?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not since yesterday."

The raven appreciated Naruto not immediately poking into what he was up to. They were silent now, one that was an odd balance of comfortable with a tinge of awkward. Sasuke guessed their argument last night had changed both of them a bit. He adjusted the tangled strap of his sling and Naruto shifted his weight to one foot. Neither of them wanted to talk, but neither of them wanted to leave. Sasuke felt oddly exposed as he could feel Naruto's eyes on his face and he dug a few pebbles into the ground.

"Hey," Naruto said softly. "Uh, you wanna teach me how to shoot?" The boy turned around and hefted the bag of guns on one arm and presented them to Sasuke.

A black eyebrow twitched. "What, you don't remember now?"

Naruto lowered the bag of guns until they landed with a soft thud on the ground. "What Sakura told me is blurry," he admitted. "Not all of it has come back properly. All I know is what she said."

Sasuke frowned but refrained from commenting about that girl. Instead, he tilted his head and pointed at the bag. "You're carrying it today," he said and ducked into their tent, rummaging around until he produced Kusanagi in its glossy sheath. He slugged it over his shoulder and nodded toward the huge cloud of smoke in their camp.

"Did you eat already?"

"Nah, but I'm fine," Naruto grinned. "You?"

"I'll pass," Sasuke grumbled. He didn't trust a thing that had been touched by Kabuto.

Naruto led the way into the woods this time. A gentle scuff had worn into the path they took, used by Sasuke and a few other rebellious members of the group. Some roots of trees were frozen white and crumbled under their heavy footsteps. Snow in ugly shades of brown and gray littered the path and sloshed around when stepped on.

"So, whatcha gonna teach me today?" the blond asked and pushed some low-hanging branches out of their way.

Sasuke hummed. "What about handguns?"

"What about a rifle?"

The raven rolled his eyes. "You're not ready for that yet, Naruto. Let's start with the basics."

"But you taught me how to shoot a shotgun," Naruto turned to walk backwards and used his hand to shoot into the distance. "I think I'm ready."

"I wouldn't say that you _know _how to handle a shotgun," Sasuke shook his head. "Want me to remind you about what happened the last time you tried to shoot one?"

The other boy tsk'ed. "Wasn't my damn fault."

Sasuke shrugged his shoulder and tilted his head. "Wanna go into the city?"

Sasuke quickly shook his head. He had forgotten that the city had been empty of Katons and any kind of life. There was no use in going to the city if there was just light bulbs and tin cans to shoot at.

"What about it?" Naruto stuffed his hands into his pockets. He turned back around and led the way once more, kicking new rocks out of place. He placed his foot against a particularly heavy rock and rolled it over, revealing an oval imprinted into the soil. There were odd animal tracks through this part of the woods. Naruto made out the animal's claws in the track and sniffed.

"When I was there yesterday, there was no Katons. No anything. It was like the city had been evacuated really calmly."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really," Sasuke replied and shivered. "Not even scraps of them."

"Huh."

They trekked through the cold and thick forest in silence the rest of the way. Naruto had silently asked if they could go into town to check it out somewhere along the way, and Sasuke had gone along with the idea.

While their footsteps and wild animals occasionally broke their silence, Sasuke got lost in his thoughts. In all honesty – what were they doing? Going out without their group, without telling anybody, especially when the authority figures were all nowhere to be seen. This was stupid. This was foolish. Naruto barely knew anything about weapons, and Sasuke only had one viable arm to protect himself with. If they were to be ambushed, they didn't stand a chance.

Actually, did it even matter that they had a sliver of a chance? They were living in an environment where they constantly had to move around to survive. And for what? It wasn't like the Sectors were going to take pity on their evicts and _let them back in. _It had been ten years. A decade. The Sectors most likely wouldn't even have their names on record for past citizens anymore. This was ridiculous.

It was inevitable to think that they would all die sometime in the near future. Their childhoods had been ruined, torn from their fingertips in the favor of a younger, brighter generation to bring better technology upon the Sectors. The Sectors would never take them back. The majority of the other survivors had already been killed by drones, scouts and Katons. So what was the damn point, living out here?

Sasuke furrowed his brows. He had questioned this many times, and answered this many times. They were living with e_ach other. _Sasuke sneered. They were living for each other, by each other, and because of each other. Who was to say that one of their group members would have an allergic reaction to food and die? Who was to say that the others with his condition didn't even know they had anemia?

The Sectors and their leaders had gotten to be selfish. They had murdered the universal donors of blood, or at least the ones they could get their hands on. Sasuke curled his lip and cast his eyes to Naruto, whose shoulders were shifting strongly under his shirt. Some people were lucky. Sick people, people like himself, were left to die without those donors. People with blood disorders and conditions, elders frail and easily bruised, those with already severed limbs that were in dire need of transplants and transfusions. People who needed to wear helmets so they wouldn't hurt themselves, people who couldn't move because they were left in their straitjackets, and people who died the first day because they didn't have the tubes to eat.

Gluttony was an unspoken sin. Sasuke wanted to be selfish. He wanted to be back in One, with his family, and be a complete and absolute spoiled fucking brat. He wanted to be back in a selfish environment, with selfish people and animals, and the selfish leader who had cast them out so he could seek revenge.

But he couldn't.

Why?

Because it wasn't _safe enough _out here. He just _had _to be stuck with a group full of idiots who were wasting the Earth's rolling hills and sinewy valleys.

But Sasuke, as intelligent as he was, could find wormholes in his own theory. He could find small spaces where he could actually be selfish. Sasuke was already a selfish person. He had gone out and read by himself, for himself, hadn't he?

So he glanced at Naruto once again, who fingered the strap of the duffel bag so it wouldn't dig into his armpit. Who kicked up dirt when he walked and never failed to ask how he was doing. How was Naruto such a selfless person?

Maybe this was the way it was supposed to be. Sasuke selfish, Naruto selfless. Sasuke could never find a firm enough grip on something to keep it for himself; but Naruto always found a strong grip on something, just to hand it to somebody else.

Sasuke sighed and focused his eyes on the back of Naruto's head.

Maybe, just maybe, he could have something for himself.

* * *

They had come across a squirrel a little time away from the city. Sasuke had explained that it was best to shoot it with an arrow. Naruto had done so with excellent preciseness.

Now, they faced the steep hill that led down to the same eight-lane road Sasuke had crossed just yesterday. Naruto whistled.

"You need help?" the blond asked and held out an arm.

"I'm fine," Sasuke said tightly. It was definitely more difficult maneuvering downhill with Kusanagi on his back. Naruto slid down the hill like going down a ladder, eventually dropping Itachi's bag of guns so that it hit the ground with a heavy thud.

"Idiot," Sasuke grunted as he skidded downhill a bit when he missed a foothold of root, "Don't fucking break them!"

"They're fine!" Naruto called back, setting his feet on the road and shrugging the bag back onto his back. "Hurry up, Sas."

"Don't call me that," Sasuke replied and nearly tumbled down the last few feet to the pavement. He grabbed onto a thin root and quickly lowered himself.

"Alright," Naruto rubbed his palms together. "Let's get this show on the road!"

"If we're the show, we are already on the road," Sasuke clipped and fixed his chokutō strap. He led Naruto steadily over the pieces of broken glass littering the road, not bothering to step quietly this time. Their footsteps broke multiple pieces of glass at a time, some of the shatters echoing out into the open space.

Four lanes into the road, Sasuke pulled Naruto to a stop. He partially unzipped the duffel on his shoulder and rummaged through the bag, producing a black Jericho. He shoved it through his belt loop and zipped the bag closed.

"Move quietly now," Sasuke hissed when the blond stomped on a large piece of glass and kicked it out of the way. Naruto nodded back to him and begun taking large strides, placing his feet gently on the ground and letting glass shift under his boots.

They continued on like this until they reached the city, crouched and moving efficiently. Sasuke smacked his hand against a tall red building whose roof was hidden by fog. The slap echoed out into the rolling alleys and returned to fall upon their attentive ears. No beeping signals, no footsteps, nothing.

Naruto made quick eye contact with him and nodded towards a large plant. Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he watched the blond tug a miniature tree from its terra cotta pot about two feet tall. Naruto heaved it into his arms, hung it over his head, and took a deep breath.

"Shit, Naruto, don't-" Sasuke scowled and shoved Naruto to the side.

He was too late. Naruto flung the vase nearly twenty feet away and it ear-piercingly shattered, its large pieces screeching against the pavement and sending the hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck to the sky. He cringed and relaxed his shoulders.

"You've just got every Katon three miles away on our asses!" Sasuke growled and glanced around for cover. The safest hiding option was in an alley – where the drones usually rolled. The city was too much of an open space.

Naruto spluttered when Sasuke ran to the alley, yanking the Jericho from his belt loop and switching its safety off. Cold wind smacked his cheeks and blew his bangs out of his face when he crouched against the red brick wall and faced the street, partially hidden by gas and water pipes.

Naruto settled closely behind him, breathing heavily. "The hell's the big deal?" he grunted.

Sasuke didn't answer. He kept his eyes glued to the road, slowly scanning up and down the pavement for any signs of movement. Maybe he imagined that tinny beep he just heard, or it was his own heartbeat in his ears. The raven turned to Naruto and nodded his head to the side of the road, where a Katon had climbed out from a sewage hole.

"That's the big deal," Sasuke murmured. He shook his head and elbowed the blond roughly in his gut. Naruto grunted and wheezed, falling back on his haunches from his kneeling position.

"And you're gonna get rid of it," Sasuke hissed and turned to Naruto's flushed face. He shoved the handgun into Naruto's chest and made a gun with his thumb and pointer finger, aiming at the Katon.

Naruto fiddled with the weapon and stared at the raven. "Wait, what?"

Sasuke raised his brows and pointed to the drone. "You," he drawled, "make Katon dead."

"Uh," Naruto flushed redder and glanced at the safety of the Jericho. "Um, do I-"

"Just make it die," Sasuke shrugged and rested the side of his head against the cool wall. Naruto would have to deal with it this time, because he caused this Katon to come out. At least they had something important to use these bullets on, not wasting them for idle target practice.

He heard Naruto gulp and allowed the corner of his lip to tilt up. This was just as Itachi taught him – to clean up his own messes. Naruto was in the same situation as a young Sasuke had been once. He had been skidding rocks across a lake when scouts emerged from the woods opposite of it. Itachi had made Sasuke kill them himself, with a pump shotgun that he didn't know how to use.

So he pretended not to carefully watch Naruto hold the gun incorrectly. He right eyes, out of Naruto's view, twitch when the boy didn't lock his elbow. At least Naruto would save himself some embarrassment because Sasuke had already turned the safety off.

Sasuke tilted his left ear to his shoulder to shield it from the loud bang when Naruto pressed his finger on the gun's trigger. The blond jumped at the noise, but the bullet went cleanly through the white metal of the Katon. The machine sputtered in its mechanics for a moment before tucking its legs in its body and shutting down.

"Good," Sasuke said and stood up, holding his hand out for the gun.

Naruto stood slowly and placed the gun in his hand, barrel facing Sasuke. His face looked a few shades paler and a fine sheen of sweat had formed on his tan forehead.

Sasuke broke their eye contact and maneuvered the gun into his own grip, holding it at a right angle and locking his elbow.

"Locking your elbow will improve your aim," he said.

Naruto nodded and stared at the barrel of the gun, tensing his jaw and swallowing. Sasuke shot another bullet into the Katon just to be safe. The raven turned to him and clicked its safety on, shoving it back into his belt loop and looking up at Naruto.

"Questions?"

"Why'd you make me do that, Sasuke?" Naruto questioned and tensed his jaw.

"Because you threw that vase," Sasuke snapped.

"Why? Couldn't you have taught me before shoving me headfirst into an unfamiliar place?"

The raven tightened his lips. "It was discipline."

Naruto's jaw went slack. "Discipline? _Discipline? _You're 'disciplining' me like a fucking kid?"

Sasuke furrowed his brows and took a small step back. "You threw that pot like a fucking _kid," _he spat back. "Just because it looks empty, doesn't mean it's damn well empty."

Naruto's face and neck turned red for a few long moments as he silently fumed. In all honestly, Sasuke expected the boy to lash out at him – that's why he ducked to the side when Naruto reached for him.

Blue eyes softened by tens of degrees and he slowly lowered his hand back to his side. "Itachi taught you to do that, didn't he?" he whispered.

Sasuke barely stopped his eyes from widening and clenched his jaw. They stood in silence, Naruto patiently waiting for an answer, and Sasuke trying to fight past his own walls.

Maybe a minute or two later, Sasuke nodded two times. He clenched his fists and bore his dark eyes into Naruto's blue, demanding a judgment or a jab at his mindset.

Naruto cast his eyes to the ground for a few seconds and locked them with Sasuke's again. "You don't have to be like him, you know."

Sasuke sneered. "I'm not."

"Make yourself your own person."

"I _am_ my own person," Sasuke snapped and ground his molars together.

"Okay," Naruto smiled. An irritatingly bright smile, at that. "I believe you."

Sasuke flared his nostrils. He hated it, fucking _hated _it, when idiots like Naruto attempted to read him. He wasn't a puzzle to put together or a damn riddle to solve. It wasn't a _game, _trying to understand him. "Don't compare me to Itachi."

"I'm not," Naruto genuinely stated and stuffed his hands in his pockets, frowning at their small height difference. "I'm just saying that you don't have to take after him."

"Who says I'm taking after him?"

"You've been snappy today," Naruto winced and fixed the duffel bag on his shoulder. "Did you take your iron?"

Sasuke growled and ignored the blond's jabs. Fucking immature idiot. He knew a hell of a lot more than Naruto.

"Hey," Naruto called to his back when he turned and jogged to catch up with Sasuke. "I'm just saying, like, be yourself, you know?"

"Shut up."

"I'm just giving you advice," he whined. "I'm sorry if I offended you?"

Naruto's words fell upon Sasuke's deaf ears. Naruto was especially annoying today, whether it be the boy or Sasuke's sour mood. This had been their second argument in a span of less than a day, and Sasuke was already tired of it.

Naruto sighed behind him and idly kicked an old can of soup. Maybe they had both woken up on the wrong side of the tent?

They walked in silence. Sasuke led them to the center of the city. He didn't feel like teaching Naruto shit anymore. Even that tin can he was kicking was annoying him. Naruto kicked the can into a lamppost, creating a loud metallic pang that could rise the dead.

"Oh, for _fuck's sake,_" Sasuke rose his voice. "Can't you _ever-"_

"Who else heard that?" A gruff voice called out, dangerously close to them. Sasuke's look of anger got quickly replaced with one of shock. Naruto froze beside him as a few other voices echoed into the city center.

The raven whipped his head around and sprinted towards a rusted green bench, skidding on a thin layer of ice and nearly falling on his left shoulder. Naruto barreled right next to him and cursed. The bench had small holes on its seat and back, originally to let rain fall through instead of pool. Sasuke used these to peek through at the many faces of a group of people forming in the city center, picking up the canned soup that Naruto had been kicking.

"Think it was a Katon?" A man with red hair tied back in a low ponytail grunted and threw the can to the side. He spat so that his saliva landed just a few inches before Sasuke's feet and fixed one of the golden tassels adorning his military uniform. Sasuke swallowed heavily and planted his eyes on another man with strange markings on his face.

"I'm sure there are other evicts out here," the man said slowly and turned his head to observe the city. His long white hair swished gently when he turned, some of its strands tangling in the wind and sticking to his navy uniform. "Other survivors."

"In here?" The read headed man held out his arms. "Do we track 'em or let 'em die?" he sleazed.

The white-haired man tilted his head. "We'll _kindly move out of their way_," he stated. "For a bit."

A mangy group of about nine other low-ranking men chuckled obnoxiously at that. Each of them had some sort of standard-issue rifle or shotgun on their backs or in their arms, and at least two pistols on either side of their hips. They even had a fancy arrangement of hunting knives, Sasuke noted. If they could ambush this group… They wouldn't need any more weapons

"We'll just have to wait for them to come out," the long-haired man flicked his eyes to lock with Sasuke's. He froze. Could that man see him? He made no sudden movement, didn't even allow himself to blink. He felt Naruto shift uncomfortably beside him and his arm involuntarily twitched.

"And then we'll take what we need," the man finished and smirked at Sasuke. The man set a hand on the classic revolver at his hip and pressed a button on his uniform, holding it up to his mouth. "Portion J, scouted. Clear, vague signs of life." He cast his eyes back to his group. "Let's move. We've stopped too long."

"Come on, sir! We were just here for five minutes!"

"Move," The man barked.

A volume of curses followed the man, single file, into a dark alley and eventually died off. Sasuke turned to Naruto, his eyes wide and his lips tight.

"We need to go!" Naruto whispered furiously and fumbled with the gun bag. "Holy shit, we need to tell Kakashi-"

"Shut up!" Sasuke whispered back. "We just need to focus on getting back to camp right now. Just follow me."

Naruto only frowned and nodded, hugging the guns to himself so they wouldn't clatter against each other. Sasuke unsheathed Kusanagi with some difficulty and crouched low to the ground, guarding himself with her and keeping an eye out for the scouts. They moved together, almost silently behind a tree ten feet away from where they were.

Sasuke nodded and fixed his grip on Kusanagi. They were smashed too closely together, their breaths fanning across each other's' face from where they were facing each other. He mouthed something to Naruto, and Naruto nodded back at him.

"One," Sasuke whispered.

"Two," Naruto breathed back and hugged the duffel closer to himself.

"Three," Sasuke crouched and prepared to move efficiently.

He and Naruto slowly crawled with their backs hunched through the center of the city. Naruto looked at him in askance, the guns in his arms in perfect silence except for the soft pitter of bullets. Sasuke nodded back at him and pointed to the soup can he just stepped over. Unfortunately, Naruto hadn't been paying attention to him.

The blond took a mighty step straight into the can and sent it flying and clattering against a building.

"Hey!"

Naruto booked it.

"Shit!" Sasuke immediately stood up and chased after Naruto, who had already leaped over traffic cones and was stomping his way over broken glass with ground-eating strides. "Naruto! Knock it the fuck off!"

"This is how you gotta do it!" Naruto called back and almost tripped. "If we moved too slowly, they would've seen us!"

"Well, they've probably seen us with all the damn noise you made! We should have snuck around!"

"Still gets us back to camp, doesn't it? What else left do we have to do?"

Sasuke cursed again and caught up with Naruto, their long strides matching each other and blowing their hair out of their faces. _Damn you, Naruto._ Sasuke smirked.

Their breaths created heavy clouds behind them and they breathed in the fresh snow that was falling. It stuck to Sasuke's face and melted in Naruto's eyes, but that was okay.

"You're such a fucking idiot," Sasuke panted and sheathed Kusanagi. He skidded to a stop and glanced back when they reached the steep entrance of the forest. So far, the other group hadn't seen them, but it they weren't careful, then they'd definitely see Naruto and Sasuke climbing up this slope.

Sasuke set a foot on a thick root and hoisted himself up, grabbing another with his right arm and slowly carrying himself up the slope. Naruto was right under him, grunting when he lost his footing and cursing when he almost fell back. Sasuke nearly kicked him in the face. A root he grabbed onto tore out, but he quickly grabbed a stone protruding from the ground and righted himself.

Sasuke hooked his arm and threw his leg over the mossy ground. He rolled back into the forest and caught his breath while he waited for Naruto to climb up the rest of the way. Then he scrunched his nose and looked into the forest.

Honestly, Sasuke had actually contemplated waiting for Naruto. He was currently ripping most of the protruding roots from the terrain. If he ran… Naruto would definitely be able to catch up, right? He snorted.

Sasuke hauled Kusanagi onto his shoulder and placed the Jericho on a mossy patch of ground for Naruto to pick up.

And he, well… he booked it.

"Hey!" Naruto screamed behind him. Sasuke leaped over a tree stump and tore through a holly bush. The ground felt amazing under his feet, slightly dry and leaves crunching from old ice. He ducked under low hanging branches and skirted around roots, leaped over mud puddles and swatted away vines. Damn, he hadn't gotten to run in _months_. All this moving around had kept him too busy to have too much free time, and running with one arm was difficult enough.

He had an hour or more to run, but that was perfect. Sasuke sprinted the whole way home, with the comforting thump of Kusanagi on his back and the clamminess of his slung arm. He opened his right hand to cool the moisture on it and occasionally ran with his head down to dry the sweat on the back of his neck, but not without making sure he was running straight into open space. He even had to stop a few times to catch his robbed breath from the cold wind, hide his face in his sweater to feel it again and remove weeds from the laces of his boots.

Sasuke slowed to a jog and gradually stopped, pressing his forehead to a tree and panting. The temperature was dropping and his mood had moved oppositely.

No footsteps behind him. He could only guess that Naruto had chosen to walk or was too slow to catch up with him. He sank to his haunches and dangled his arms off his knees, ducking his head into his sweater and gulping in warm air.

So, he thought to himself, military officials were scouting in town. That was an obstacle. He thought of what he and Naruto would tell the adults back at camp. Itachi would surely question why they were in town in the first place – but at least they had gotten there in time to witness the scouts. Maybe they could relocate a few miles away, or far, far away.

This would probably be the last time Sasuke ever came to town because of them. He frowned. Sasuke still needed to read up more on the subject he'd been wondering about. Surely he could sneak into the city, but now he knew that there was a great risk. A risk of his friends' and his own life.

Sasuke's breathing calmed and he couldn't tell if the faint thrumming he heard was Naruto's footsteps or his heartbeat. He looked up and, sure enough, Naruto was jogging and huffing towards him. Sasuke couldn't help the quirk of the corners of his lips at the glint in the blond's belt loop. He had seen the Jericho after all.

Naruto stopped in front of him, bending over and letting sweat drip out of his hair and onto the ground. "Dude, what the hell's with you today?" He rasped and collapsed next to Sasuke. "How the hell do you run that fast?"

Sasuke sneered at the scent and sweat coming off of Naruto. Hadn't the boy ever heard of taking a break?

"I run in my free time."

"Kami, don't you ever just relax?"

"Frankly, that's a waste of time," Sasuke clipped. "Why not practice something that could help me out?"

Naruto sighed heavily and knocked the back of his head against the tree. "Man," he grumbled and threw the duffel of guns onto the ground.

Sasuke only flared his nostrils for a few seconds and wisely decided to breathe through his mouth. Perhaps Naruto was just a heavy sweater. He glanced at the ashen sky, which looked like it was going to unleash a heavy storm of snow within a few days. Maybe a blizzard, judging by the heavy wind that slapped their cheeks.

He decided to tilt his head to quickly glance at Naruto. His tan cheeks were flushed a deep red, and his almost nonexistent eyebrows were ruffled by the wind. Sasuke's gaze lingered a bit longer on his short flaxen eyelashes and wandering deep blue irises, and on the pieces of hair that plastered to his neck and behind his ears. Those blue eyes met his own and Sasuke immediately snapped his gaze away to a pile of mossy sticks by their feet. He felt the burn of Naruto's stare on his cheek and tried his best to keep the onslaught of heat on the back of his neck down.

Naruto sighed gently and shouldered their duffel. "Let's go, eh? A walk this time?"

Sasuke snorted. "Yeah, why not."

* * *

Returning to camp was made harder than it should have been. The trek back was filled with small talk and sarcastic comments, real conversations and stupid questions.

It was unfortunate that it had been Konohamaru's shift to guard. It was unfortunate that this wood's foliage was so thick. It had also been unfortunate that Sasuke stepped on a rather large stick and the crack had rung out loud enough to be heard by the boy.

"Ey!" Konohamaru spit out his lollipop and dazedly glared at the forest. "Who's out there?" He pointed his rifle incorrectly into the woods and shifted it madly.

Sasuke nearly rolled his eyes. If they had been Katons, Konohamaru would surely be roasting next to the meat at the bonfire. "It's just us," he called out.

"Yeah, it's Naruto and Sasuke," Naruto said and narrowly stepped over a poison ivy bush.

"Damn y'all scouts," Konohamaru's voice cracked. "Y'all got that new technology to copy someone's voice, I know that! Come out here and we can finish this fair and square!"

"Konohamaru, shut the fuck up," Sasuke growled.

"Ay, Ino! Kiba! You guys, there's scouts over here!"

Naruto groaned. "It's okay, Konohamaru, it's just us."

"Damn it! Hurry up! Show your faces and we can get this done!"

"We'd be done if you'd _shut up," _Sasuke snapped and unsheathed his sword. "Kono-"

"Konohamaru, you idiot, that sounds like Sasuke and Naruto," a female voice cut in. "Stop pointing that gun."

"Sakura, you don't understand! Those scouts got those voice-copying technology!"

"I wish you had been old enough to go to grade school," Sakura snapped back. "Don't you dare shoot."

"Hey, hold up your hand," Naruto said to Sasuke. "You're the palest one in the camp and they'd be able to tell if it's you."

Sasuke glared at the blond. "Why don't you hold up yours? You're the one with a damn summer tan."

"They'll see yours like a flare gun," Naruto grinned innocently and put his hands behind his head.

The raven's eyebrow twitched, but he held his hand up nonetheless.

"What is that?" A different voice asked.

"A scout!" Konohamaru screamed and cocked his rifle. "Damn impersonators of Naruto and Sasuke."

"No, it's us," Sasuke yelled back and waved his hand. They broke through the last of foliage and startled the small crowd that had come to observe the side of the forest.

Konohamaru glanced at both of them and lowered his gun to his waist. "Where have you guys been?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Town," Naruto grumbled and dropped his bag. "And we come with bad news."

"What?" Ino asked, looking at both of them skeptically and crossing her arms. Neji, Sai, Sakura, Karin and Hinata relaxed behind her. "You went all the way into town?"

Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other, silently agreeing to let Naruto do the talking. The crowd would pay more attention to him, anyway.

Ino shook her head and held up her palm. "Anyway, what 'bad news' do you have? Food shortage?"

"It's actually worse than that," Naruto said awkwardly. "Like, a lot worse."

Sasuke aimed a gentle scowl at him and shook his head. "While we were in town, a team of about ten officials was scouting through."

Ino's soft features immediately hardened and she stood a bit straighter. "My goodness…"

"I didn't look long enough to see what Sector they were from," Sasuke said, "but I'm guessing One or Two."

A few sighs were heard within the gathering and some people stepped away. Sakura furrowed her brows. "Did they say that they were looking through the rural?" she demanded. "Did they say how long they were staying? Did-"

Hinata set her hand on Sakura's shoulder and they made short eye contact. Sakura silenced and stared into the woods, like she was expecting them to come any minute.

"They're staying for a while," Naruto cut in. "Not sure if they'll be coming through here, though. Their captain seemed… dangerous."

"Oh," Sakura sighed. "What do we do? We have to find Tsunade and Jiraiya and tell them!"

"We'll tell them that-"

"No!" Konohamaru suddenly yelled and dropped his gun to his feet. "We can't tell them."

"That's the dumbest shit I have ever heard come out of your mouth," Neji snapped. "Why on earth shouldn't we tell them?"

Konohamaru stewed silently and threw his arms out. "We need to learn how to handle ourselves. We always depend on the adults for every little thing. We can show them that we can handle things like this-"

"Konohamaru," Ino interrupted and shook her head. "I understand what you're saying. We all know that we could pitch in and hunt for ourselves, travel by ourselves, etcetera. But these are _military officials from the Sectors. _If there's any situation we need the adults in, it's this. We can't take risks with a group like this."

Konohamaru's eyes turned glassy and he shook his head harder. "Why don't y'all open your eyes! You wanna know why they're not nowhere to be found? They're testing us! They wanna see how we can handle ourselves so we can be left alone like this! And it seems that we're almost falling apart since we've spent most of the day looking for _them _and didn't even notice that Naruto and Sasuke were gone. We can _show _them that we can handle ourselves. We can show them that we're strong _without_ them-"

"Konohamaru, we're a group. We work _together. _I get what you're saying," Ino argued and set her hands on her hips. "But we can't gamble our chances like this and take a stupid risk. The wisest thing to do right now is tell them."

Konohamaru wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Damn you, you _don't _understand. I just said we spent the _whole day _lookin' for 'em and we find jack shit. Can't even find Kakashi and he was here this morning. We can do it this one time."

Silence hung over the crowd and Sasuke could see over half of its people agreeing with Konohamaru's emotional preteen outburst. He partially agreed with it – but Ino was right. The wisest thing to do overall was tell the adults, and as soon as possible.

"Konohamaru, calm down." Sakura set her palm on his shoulder and pet his brown hair. Konohamaru shrugged it off and shied away from her other hand.

"Damn this," Ino growled. "The hell are we supposed to do?"

"Wait," Sasuke deadpanned.

"For those scouts to get here and gut us?" Ino gestured slicing her neck so violently that her long ponytail swished high to the side. Her blue eyes were wide and angry. "Damn these adults. Itachi's not even here."

Sasuke scrunched his nose and almost sneered. If they were smart enough, capable enough, they could handle a group of military men that were half of their number.

Ino spread her fists and sighed heavily, pressing her index and middle fingers to either of her temples and massaging. "Let's just increase security tonight," she breathed. "Four to the perimeter and myself at the center watching all of you. Neji guarding the tent area. Keep at least two guns in your tents, and have them there as soon as we finish here," she grumbled, glancing at the setting sun. "And keep an eye on each other's back. All of you, partner up. Don't separate at all and avoid going to the bathroom. Forest is off limits from this point on. No yelling," she glared at Konohamaru, "and no loud conversations. Tonight and the upcoming few are strictly inside voices and whispering at sundown. I know the snow's gonna be coming down real hard these next few days, but Chouji, stomp out the fire. We can't have smoke signals giving us away. No lanterns in tents. Finally, if any of the volunteered guards get held hostage," she made eye contact with everyone in the crowd at this. "We don't exist. You're the only one out here. Get that word? Spread it to the others." She barked.

The group looked at each other and sighed heavily. It was going to be a long next few days, adults or not.

Naruto turned to Sasuke and frowned. "Wanna be partners?"

* * *

A/N: Finally, a whole chapter in just Sasuke's point of view. Sorry this is 10 days late. I tried to make it as long as I could, since apparently, you guys didn't like last chap. Sorry it was so short. Don't forget to review, give me some golden insight, and ask questions. Those of you faving/following but not reviewing: come out of your hole! Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chap. Until next time.


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